


Song for a thousand-step journey

by Tsubame99



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game), Log Horizon
Genre: BAMF Log Horizon characters, BAMF Nanase Riku, Disclaimer: I don't own either Log Horizon or IDOLiSH7, It's quite good, Log horizon connected to Japan, M/M, Rare Pairings, Riku eyes have different colors, Riku's class is Assassin, Six Gravity and Procellarum's appearance, What am I doing, and fluff every where, inspired by a fic called 'Horizon Breach' by GaBeRock, like in Mechanical Lullaby, they are not the focus though, well i only have the idea of opening gates similar...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2019-07-18 06:49:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsubame99/pseuds/Tsubame99
Summary: In which Nanase Riku is one of the veteran player of Elder Tale, being only 7 when the game was first released and started playing ever since one of his friends in the hospital introduced him to it. And of course things would have continued like in canon where Riku became an idol to reunite with his twin, had fate (read: this fic's author) not have another plan. On the date of the release of the twelve expansion pack of the game, Riku became one of thousand of people who disappeared in their own room without any trace. Nearly 5 months later, a strange phenomenon happened on top of Mount Fuji, literally opened a whole new world for the rest of Japan.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Horizon Breach](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857) by [GaBeRock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaBeRock/pseuds/GaBeRock). 



> Hello, I’m a newbie who had just joined this fanfiction writing community a couple of weeks ago.  
> I had just recently fall down the deep hole called "IDOLiSH7's fandom" and I can't get out, so, this is the result of that fall. A crossover that I think no one really need but did it anyway. And I admit, I'm not patience enough to write everything from the start, so I glossed over many things. So to understand what is happening in this fanfic, knowledge about the anime IDOLiSH7 and Log Horizon is required. I bet that there are still many grammatical errors up there, so if you can point it out for me I’ll be very thankful.  
> P.S: And I'm not gonna be able to update regularly, because writer's block is a pain… maybe every 3 weeks to once a month…or more depend on my inspirations and the amount of homework and deadlines in school…

IDOLiSH7 still remembered that day vividly. It was several days before their first outdoor concert (their first ever concert even). Their manager had given them 3 months to become familiar with each other and later, with their new dorm, although of course they still keep their reason to be an idol secret (well except Mitsuki and Tamaki who will say if asked). They had even learned to adjust themselves to ease some of Riku's burden, worried for his health (even if said center didn't like it).

And then that day, all except Riku went out to either work or study. They all met on the way back and decided to go together when the news on the screen on the sides of the buildings was interrupted by the breaking news of thousands of people all over the world went missing in their own home at the same time. Their similarity is that all of the missing people were sitting before their computer, waiting for the launch of Elder Tales' upgrade version - the game is very famous with 13 servers worldwide (three of which were in Japan) and was having its 10-year-anniversary. Nagi then had a horrified expression on his face.

"Nagi, what's wrong?" Mitsuki asked worriedly

"I just remembered, Riku said that he has been playing Elder Tale since it first launched, and he's staying home to wait for the upgrade today!!" Nagi said in panic while jumbling in his English-Japanese way of speaking

"Then we should hurry back!" Iori had already started running, prompting the others to go after him

The six of them got back in record time and started running to Riku's room right away, hoping to see their cheerful center. However, what greeted them was an empty room, with the computer still on, the screen with the letters 'CONGRATULATION' flashing in different color under Elder tales' logo. Everything started to get worse and worse, the remaining six member began to have more and more disagreements and fights. Riku was the glue that kept them together, even if the red head didn't know it. They didn't want to believe that their center, their friend was gone, along with thousands of other people without them knowing whether he is still alive.

Their turning point had been when they were deciding their group name. Originally most of them want 'IDOLiSH7' as their group's name, but without Riku the name seemed wrong in some way. That was until Tamaki surprisingly became the voice of reason.

"Nee, can we still have that name? I don't want it to change" the light blue haired male said thoughtfully

"Tamaki? Why..?" Sougo asked in surprise

"Even if we don't know where Rikkun is...we don't know if he's even alive either...But it also means that someday Rikkun may come back right? I'm not saying we leave that center spot alone, I just think that Rikkun is still one of us and he still want to be an idol" Tamaki said while eating his pudding and ignoring the others' gazes

"Yes! I agree with Tamaki-kun on this! Riku is still here in our heart, and we will carry on his dream with this name!" Nagi said excitedly

"Don't talk like Riku is dead, you idiot!" Mitsuki yelled in anger, then said softly "He's not..."

"I wonder if Riku is angry with our behavior this past week...will he lecture us or will he try to force us to eat his super bitter dish as punnishment?" Sougo smiled sheepishly while trying to imagine their center's face

"Maa, we will make up for this by performing our first outdoor concert to the best of our abilities" Yamato said to the group

"OU!!"

Thanks to this, their concert was a success even though there were only 9 people watching. Time flied by quickly, first came their 2 months ban, then TRIGGER's live, at which Yamato, Tamaki and Nagi met Kujou Tenn, who was about to collapse from exhaustion, and helped him getting to the venue. After that was being accused of trying to steal TRIGGER's fan after the live, while the truth is that they felt too restless seeing the star group performing. Then the debuting of MEZZO, which consist of Tamaki and Sougo. Going to Okinawa to make their first MV for the new song, and meeting TRIGGER again at the same place. Their own song being stolen by TRIGGER's composer, their first failed performance at MusicFesta, their own self-made channel to interact with fans. Yamato's first acting in a movie, Tamaki's disastrous reality show which led to Sougo collapsing and admitted about his family situation. And their nomination for JIMA Newcomer Award.

The six of them sometimes went into Riku's room to tell their stories. There were times when they came in together and told their stories, inserted with their own thoughts, and there were times some of them went in alone when things got too much. It's a way for them to cope with the stress of becoming an idol, their own circumstances and the empty feeling they got when Riku disappeared. They didn't touch anything in the room other than cleaning occasionally, "for when Rikkun come back" said Tamaki. They wanted to pretend that Riku was still there, that he can still hear them. That the red-haired center would listen to their problem without any negative expression like he used to, he would encourage them whenever they feel down, he would make Tamaki his favorite pudding, cook with Mitsuki and Sougo, wautch Magical Kokona with Nagi, tutor Iori and Tamaki,... President Takanashi, Banri and Tsumugi was worried, but even they can't fault the members for this because even they were affected by this. Without Riku, it felt like every thing became a little duller, a little colder.

None of them noticed the silver flute sitting on Riku's night-stand shining a little whenever someone came in the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things in Elder Tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> So, this is chapter 2. My brain won't leave me alone the past few days, and so I updated this earlier than schedule. It took a different turn from the written version half-way through, though I don't regret it. Please let me hear your thought about this. And thank you for reading :))))  
> On a side mote, at first I want to do a Shiroe x Soujirou pairing, but Soujirou x Riku called for me instead :)))) and I had had a little freak out when I found out that Soujirou's height is 168 while Riku's is 176....such difference.... And Soujirou was supposed to be the seme in this pairing even though in canon he looked more like an uke... Then my friend said that I should just leave it like that, that kind of height difference will be interesting, and when I thought about it properly it did made some amusing scene :)))) So if you don't like the pairing then okay, that's your opinion but please no flame. Constructive criticisms are always welcomed though.

When Riku came to, what greeted him was a massive tree beside a crystal clear lake, with a familiar silhouette sitting near him.  
"Ah, you're awake." Shiroe said "Naotsugu just called me, he's coming here in a moment."  
"Shiro-nii, this place...is this Akihabara?" Riku asked while looking at the familiar scene that he usually only see on the computer's screen.  
"Yeah, I still don't know how we are here, in our avatar, and are we really inside the game or are we in another world entirely..."  
"It's like the anime where people got transported into a game....I wonder if we still have our body in the real world? And can we be revived the normal way at the Cathedral like in the game...?" Riku said softly while looking at his avatar's reflection on the crystal clear lake, which wasn't different from his original one except for the eyes. (In this world Riku's eyes are heterochromatic like in Mechanical Lullaby)

"Ooiii!!! Shiro!" Naotsugu called while running up to them, then he noticed Riku "Oh Riku's here too? I thought you don't have time since you're gonna be an idol and will debut in a few days"  
"Hello to you too senpai. It was a stroke of bad luck that I finally have some free time today" Riku smiled ruefully at the Guardian-class  
"Ah, I saw the others names' on my friend list, they're all online but I can't reach some of them. Where are they really?" Naotsugu wondered briefly  
"Saa~ I wonder...Souji and the others...are they here, in Akihabara...?" Riku asked out loud, remembering the bipolar samurai that he had a crush on  
"Ricchan, have you confessed yet?" Shiroe's voice took on a teasing tone  
"Please don't call me that senpai...And don't forget I still have those photos that Krusty-san will gladly pay a heap of money for, you know the ones from the university's fair" Riku smiled angelically while an illusion of a knife holding oni with purple aura floating behind menancinglly  
"Geh...You're really scary sometimes Ricchan..." Naotsugu said tensely, deeply regretting that he had introduced Riku to Krusty in real life several years ago. Riku had officially became Krusty's apprentice, and was in the process of learning politics, economic, management and dozen of other things from the man. That fact had gave many adventurers, especially in D.D.D., shivers because one Krusty was bad enough, two of the man (the second on with an angelic face to boot) would surely bring on the second Apocalypse to any poor soul stupid enough to earn their ire.  
Then came Akatsuki's call for help and the reveal of their real gender and stature. The offer to help Crescent Moon retrieving one of their member in Susukino, meeting Nyanta again and the discover to real food taste. The cream of the cake had been when Shiroe finally decided to start his own guild, Log Horizon with 5 members and the plan to establish the Round Table Conference and destroying Hamelin guild at the same time. Akatsuki, Minori, Touya, Crescent Moon and West Wind Brigade had then witness Seta Soujirou hugging the life out of their resident cinnamon roll Riku the first chance he got, while said boy's face became as red as his hair. Shiroe, Naotsugu and Nyanta only looked on with amusement, having been witnesses to the two's dancing around each other ever since Tea Party.  
The new guild member and the other guild leaders in the Round Table had also seen with their own eyes Riku's unrivaled power in info gathering to the point some of them thought the red haired boy can come and go anywhere and know every thing. Especially Honesty's guild members, as the guild's policy is to accept anyone who wanted to join, there are many who joined just to have the benefits of staying in a big guild, and did nothing except moping or sitting around or try to use other's results for their own gain. The amount of skeletons Riku dug up on Honesty member individually was so much it filled out a whole bag of document (said bag was the magic one that every players level 40 and above got, which had the inside much bigger than the outside). Honesty guild master, Eins, was so relieved about the problem of his unruly members that he came close to worshiping the ground Riku walked on (he had already joined the not-so-secret cult who literally worshiped Riku like a Seraphim - which was one of his title - or an Angel. Of course they can't really stalk a literal information broker slash assassin...)  
They were settling into their new guild house after Touya, Minori and Isuzu joined. Shiroe was in the process of finishing some documents when Riku poked his head in through the door way to his office timidly.  
"Shiroe-nii...I need to report some thing..."  
"Ah, Riku, come on in. And please close the door" Shiroe looked up from his document "Is there anything wrong?"  
"Am I going crazy Shiroe-nii" Riku suddenly asked  
"Eh? What do you mean?"  
"When I'm asleep...sometimes I can hear the voices of my friends, telling me about what happened to them..." Riku said, hesitance clear in his voice  
"Are you sure it's not you dreaming about the past?"  
"No...What they said to me are things that hadn't happened in the past, things that I didn't know...like it's what happening in the real world..."  
"What do they talked about?" Shiroe asked gently  
"About the outdoor concert that we're gonna do before being brought here, about their new songs and about their 2 months ban until TRIGGER's live tour..."  
"TRIGGER's that famous idol group that your twin is in isn't it?" Shiroe said thoughtfully, suddenly remembering the time when Tenn left home without explanation, and Riku's admittance to the hospital right after that for a particularly bad attack  
"Hai...the day we were brought here was on May 5th, and our concert was supposed to be on May 15th...It's been almost 2 weeks in the real world..."  
"And it had been almost 5 months here..." Shiroe silently calculated in his head  
"I was very happy, to hear their voices once again...but at the same time...I think I will go crazy with regret and what if and the desire to go back home will become so strong it will ruin my other senses...What should I do?" Riku turned towards the spectacles wearing Enchanter, his eyes full of turmoil  
"Riku...Don't worry" Shiroe patted Riku's head affectionately and smiled "I will definitely find a way for us to come back. In the mean time, whenever things got too much for you, you have me, Soujirou-chan, Krusty-san, Naotsugu and Nyanta-hanchou here. We will help you in any way we can, like you did for us in the past. Be a little more selfish, Riku"  
"Hai...Thank you Shiroe-nii" Riku smiled brightly, flowers and sparkle appearing around him forcing Shiroe to turn away to hide his blushing face "Shiroe-nii? What's wrong?"  
Riku titled his head, and Shiroe suddenly feel the need to have a barricade in the guild house, specifically Riku's room and outside the doorway into the building  
"It's nothing, don't worry so much Riku, I'm fine" Shiroe ruffled Riku's head gently while inwardly thought 'We really need to protect him in case someone want to kidnap this innocent boy...Damn it why is he this cute...'


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to our lovable idol group IDOLiSH7, a brief appearance of TRIGGER and another face of Nagi :)))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note:  
> This chapter is quite short compare to the first two, so sorry about this (writer block is a pain…). On another note I'm almost done with chapter 4, so you don't have to wait long till the next update :)  
> This is from I7's point of view again, and next chapter would be from Log Horizon's. The best part is gonna be from Log Horizon's P.O.V, which I promise will be longer than this.  
> Again thank you for reading this.

"The winner of JIMA 13th Award, male idol category is....IDOLiSH7!!" The MC announced in the deafening cheers from both the fans and from IDOLiSH7 themselves  
The six surrounded Yamato, who was holding the cup as if it held the secret of the universe. The party held at their dorm after that was also memorable, with everyone smiling like there's no tomorrow.  
IDOLiSH7's schedule then became packed with reality shows' offer, MV videoing and advertising, interviews,... In one of those many interview in Shinooka-san's reality show, one of the host asked IDOLiSH7 a question that every fan was dying to know.  
"Yamato-san, can I ask you and your group a question? It's about your group's name" the host asked  
"Ah, that. We were quite surprise that no one had asked about it" Yamato said "It's not everyday a group that have only six member have a seven in their name..."  
"I think the fans know that it's a sensitive topic for you, so they refrained from asking. Can you tell us?" the host replied  
"Well, originally, we were gonna be a group of seven, many of you may have guessed that, and you are not wrong." Yamato said  
"He was also meant to be our center..." Iori - I7 current center said  
"His voice was very beautiful." Nagi said sadly in English  
"But because of an incident, that we will not divulge, he's...you can say that he's not here anymore." Sougo said, unwilling to reveal the whole truth  
The moment Sougo said it, almost every one thought that the 7th member of I7 had either been in an accident that made him unable to be an idol or that he was dead. Which was a very different thing from the real truth. There were some people who can sense that I7 was not saying the whole truth and decided to respect the idols' privacy.  
"He was, still is, our precious friend and an irreplaceable part of us. Becoming an idol was also his dream, and we want to make it come true. Our name is IDOLiSH7 because even if he's not here physically, he will still stay in our heart and memory, and still stand beside us whenever we face difficulties on our way" Mitsuki said finally, unknowingly sending many fans (girls especially) to tears  
"Even if I don't know him, I do know that he'd be very happy for you" the host said kindly  
"Thank you" I7 chorused  
\------------------------------------------------  
"Who would have thought they have such a deep meaning for their name" Yaotome Gaku said while watching the reality show that I7 was on  
"Yeah...it surprised me a bit" Ryuu said, while Tenn stayed silent, suddenly feeling uneasy

Several days later, Douglas Rootbank came over to their agency and was mistaken to be a light screen repair-man by Iori and Tamaki thanks to their terrible English. After they had settled it (read: President Takahashi and Sougo and Mitsuki threatening them) and asked the elder man for advice, Nagi leveled a serious look at the others.  
"You guys, tell me truthfully,...how terrible is your English? Please be honest"  
"Well, I only know the basic...enough to have simple conversation" Yamato scratched the back of his head  
"I don't really understand any of it, Iori too" Tamaki said, ignoring Iori's shouting "Oi!" behind him  
"I can't speak it..." Mitsuki admitted  
"Me neither..." Sougo said sadly  
"Oh my god...Riku please give me strength wherever you are..." Nagi held his head in his hands and mumbled  
"Nagi-san?" Tsumugi asked tentatively  
"That's it, you guys are going to re-learn English" Nagi said seriously  
"EEeehhhh???!!!"  
"We are idols, there will be more situation like with Douglas Rootbank. English is an international language, we will need it if we intend to be more than what we are now. So, English class, no option."  
"Well I do admit we need to learn English" Banri agreed "Maybe I need to learn too, I can only hold simple conversation..."  
"I am not saying this to show off, but I can speak 8 languages and Riku alone can speak 6. So all of you, at least study to speak English properly please..."  
"EEeehhhh!!!????? ARE YOU SERIOUS??!!!" They chorused  
"Yes" Nagi said, then smiled cheerfully "Now we're gonna have our first lesson in English, so please cooperate with me"  
"Is it me or the room got colder?" Tamaki said while getting shivers staring at Nagi's smile  
"Am I seeing a shinigami behind Nagi?" Mitsuki rubbed his eyes  
'I hope we survive this' Sougo prayed silently  
So began IDOLiSH7 hellish training in English by Nagi (Banri and Tsumugi also had to join).


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Elder Tale, in which Riku show part of his terrifying ability as an information broker and a little fluff at the end :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> Welp, the long awaited chapter 4 had came after 4 days of combating with deadlines, yay to me /(^0^)/ the scenes in this chapter is kind of emotional...well I intend to make it emotional, but I really don't know if I had succeed or not, so please tell me ways to improve them :) on another note chapter 5 and 6 are on their way, after I deal with the mountains of homework and my club's event...why oh why did I accept to be the one who's responsible for the performance part....(TAT) please wait patiently, as I can't update until the next weekend...again thank you for reading

"So you decide to open a gate connecting us to our old world, instead of trying to send us back the way we came here?" Riku asked Shiroe, both of them sitting on the roof of their guild house.  
"Yeah, thanks to Kanami-san, I finally found a solution that's the best for all of us" Shiroe said "If I did try to send us back the way we came here, most of us will have our lives turned upside down. Many wanted to return, but many had also got attached to this world and cannot decide whether to leave or not"  
"There are also people like Nureha - whose life was so bad that this world became their salvation. Or like Touya - who was disabled, they cannot walk or talk or hear or see until they came into this world. And there's Rudy, who's originally a Lander" Riku ticked off his fingers, ignoring Shiroe's disturbed look "There's also people like Michikata-san or Yuuta-san (OC), who can't be who they wanted to be in our old world because they have to take over their family business. Students who were pressured to have good grades, to be in good school and have jobs that would get them big salaries, wasting their youth in test and numbers and rankings like Mai, Liliet, Johny, Ryuuji,... Normal worker who slaved themselves in black company or low-paying jobs like Yuko-san, Tejin-san, Alteria-san, Arnold-san, et cetera...."  
"You are right like always, Ricchan, but where the hell did you get those info about Nureha and Touya and others?" Shiroe sweat-dropped comically  
"I'm your information broker, am I not? I have my own way" Riku winked playfully "My point is, you had chosen the right choice for every one except for some higher-ups of the Landers. After the Apocalypse, everything have changed and at the same time, nothing have. We are still us, but our appearance and existence itself have changed. Our old world too has changed, we may not know how much but there will be differences. We cannot return to those days where Elder Tale was still simply a game on a computer, when we still have our own lives. This is our new reality and we have to accept it, or at least part of it to survive."  
"Riku...."  
"Ah, I'm sorry Shiroe-nii, I spoke too much..." Riku said quickly  
"It's alright, I know that you missed your friend and your brother very much, especially when you could hear their voices in your dream..." Shiroe said, gently patting his little brother head  
"Sometimes I woke up and thought this is just a nightmare that I can wake up and see my friends and see my brother, even if it's just on TV-shows...I didn't even met or got in touch with him ever since that man took him away..." Riku said, sadness became more and more apparent in his eyes.  
“At that time I had wondered why he left us…Have I done something wrong, to make him leave? Was I being a nuisance with my weak, useless body and naïve thinking?” His sight became blurry with tears, but the red head stubbornly did not let them fall “Then Mama and Papa left me too…after the accident, they went away without me…Tenn-nii’s reason for leaving, was really because of me…Dr.Yukimura said that a man named Kujou agreed to pay for my hospital bill just after Tenn-nii left…I am really useless, right? I was unable to do anything other than watching my family leaving one after another just because I was too weak…”  
“It’s not true, Riku” Shiroe said while hugging the smaller teen “You are not useless, and I will continue to say it until you believe it. Tenn-kun really loves you, going through such length to protect his beloved twin brother. And we love you too, that’s why don’t make it sound like your life is not of any value. Tenn-kun want you to live healthy and happy, and we want you to be whoever you want, to live and laugh and cry with us, to share with us your fear, your pain, your happiness. Especially Soujirou-chan, he loves you very much. I will do my best to open that gate, everyone will, so that we can meet our loved ones again.”  
Somehow Shiroe had maneuvered them so that Riku is lying on the bench they were sitting on, with his head on Shiroe’s lap. The teen’s heterochromatic eyes closed slowly, clearly beginning to fall asleep after the emotional roller-coaster he went through.  
“Um…I want to…see Tenn-nii again…Yamato-san too…and Mitsuki-san…Nagi-san, Sougo-san…Iori and Tamaki…everyone…” Riku mumbled, gradually began to fall asleep  
“How is he, Shiro-senpai?” Seta Soujirou, West Wind Brigade’s Guild Master (and Riku’s boyfriend) asked the glasses wearing Enchanter  
“Yeah, he;s asleep for now” Shiroe said gently “Sorry for making you wait, Soujirou-chan”  
“No, it’s okay. I hate to admit it but he will open up to you about these kind of problem faster than me.” Soujirou said, sitting down next to Shiroe to comb his hand through his boyfriend’s red locks.  
“You’re still his number 1 Soujirou-chan. But maybe that’s why he didn’t want to burden you with this”  
“Then I just have to prove him wrong. He’s my light when I was down in the dump, he had been encouraging us and supplying us precious information that saved many Lander’s lives…He’s not useless…” Soujirou said sullenly  
The next few days, Soujirou constantly came by Log Horizon to cheer Riku up, be it little gifts, having a spar or going out on dates. Other members of Log Horizon and West Wind Brigade thought it was cute and secretly encourage the couple. Their relationship soon got out and spread through Akihabara like fire on dry grass, and many girls and guys alike sighed in disappointment because Soujirou and Riku were not ‘available’, so to speak. Of course they didn’t let that keep them down for long, Akihabara’s teenagers quickly turned from wanting either Soujirou or Riku to be their boyfriend to embracing their fujoshi/fudanshi side. While not obvious, every time Soujirou and Riku went out on their dates there were many discreetly admiring them, and the couple was aware but pretend to be oblivious about it.  
‘While I love it here’ Riku thought while looking around the market with Soujirou chattering excitedly beside him ‘I still want to go back…everyone…’


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interlude: the Goblin King's return -> in other words the reveal of one of Riku's overpowered Overskill, which wasn't even related to his class :)  
> Note: the italic parts are the conversation through the phone-call thing in Log Horizon (basically the thing when you select call from your status bar and put your hand near your ear like you are calling through a bluetooth...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> I'm alive!!! Thank you for your encouraging words, I have escape the week of nightmare with deadline upon deadlines /(^0^)/ yayyyy!!!!  
> I present to you chapter 5, which is just a flashback, really...sorry for that, my brain was a jumbled mess and this came out...don't worry though chapter 6 is on its way, I'll try to complete it as soon as posisible :) and sorry about the fighting scenes, I suck at describing that to I glossed over many part...  
> And does anybody have the same problem as me, I'm having too many ideas and AU for I7 in my brain and my hand can't keep up...I think I'll do another AU soon, after I have a clear plot for this one...  
> Anyway enjoy reading and thank you very much!

_Sand leaf beach_  
“Minori’s group is doing quite well” Naotsugu said while they were waiting for their MP to recover.  
“Indeed-nya” Nyanta said “Minori is learning Shiroe’s full control encounter, and she’s also a very dedicated student-nya”  
“Something’s wrong…” Shouryuu said while standing up with Hien doing the same  
“Shouryuu…?” Marielle asked worriedly  
“I sense it too-nya…this feeling…” Nyanta said thoughtfully.  
“But I don’t feel anything…” Naotsugu said, with Marielle and Kawara and Shigeru nodding in agreement.  
“Were-people are more in tuned with their intuition than other races, so it’s obvious that you won’t feel that. But that feeling is rarely wrong, so don’t let your guard down.” A voice sounded out from behind them.  
“Riku-san!” Shouryuu exclaimed, a little bit startled at the sudden appearance of the red head.  
“I think I know what you mean Ricchan” Naotsugu said while standing up, his face turned serious.  
“What the…” Hien stood stock still, as did the others when the sea’s color turned into a shade of dark blue. The color began spreading rapidly to the point it covered the whole sea shore in 10 seconds. Naotsugu accepted a call from Minori, whose voice showed her panic  
“ _Naotsugu-san, a large amount of Sahuagin is closing on us! The estimated amount is over 2000. We won’t be able to hold on at this rate! And Serara-san’ Shrieker Echo had just sounded, Choushi is gonna be attacked by the Goblin army! What do we do now Naotsugu-san?!_ ”  
“We are going down there now, you guys start retreating back. Tell other trainee groups too.” Naotsugu said before turning to the others “I know that our MP are not full yet but we have to get down there, the Sahuagin had got reinforcement.”  
“But we have what, 8 person here, not counting the trainees, against over 2000 Sahuagins ?! Even if we do count in the trainees, the amount of people wouldn’t reach 50! And there’s also Choushi! Reinforcement is 2 hours away!” Marille said in panic  
“Riku-chi?” Nyanta turned to the silent red-haired assassin  
“Let the trainees go defend Choushi in groups, the Goblins are weaker than Sahuagins but I think there will be some Dire Wolves, so get all the trainees there.” Riku pulled out a map of the village and its surroundings “Put each group here, here and here. Shouryuu-kun, please direct them to their position in here, especially Minori’s. We will deal with the Sahuagins here, the amount of Goblins is about 150, so we will leave them to the others”  
“Alright, I get to it!” Shouryuu said, taking the map from Riku and started to contact the trainees groups.  
“How are your MPs?” Riku asked while looking at the rest.  
“Mine is almost half full” Naotsugu checked his status bar.  
“Me too-nya” Nyanta said  
“I’m only a quarter full” Kawara said dejectedly, with several others nodding in agreement.  
“There’s no other way, eh?...Alright, leave the MP recovering to me, let’s get down there and stop the Sahuagins.” Riku said, turning to the battle field where the trainees were retreating back.  
“Oi oi Ricchan, don’t tell me…” Naotsugu said in realization  
“There’s no time!” Riku cut the burly Guardian off “I know that there’s a time limit but if I don’t do this then Choushi is gonna turn into a feeding field for monster. Let’s go”  
“What’s going on? Riku-san?” Shigeru asked in confusion.  
“There’s no time to explain-nya. Try to end this in one hour-nya, we’ll explain later-nya” Nyanta said, then rushed into the fray.  
“Overskill: Madness Melody” Riku whispered, his scarf turned from white into a blood red, and his eyes glowed in an eerie color.  
“What…” Kawara uttered in confusion, her MP suddenly shot up and became full in just 3 seconds, and from the sounds from the others their MP also have the same state. Her HP also became full and her casting time all turned to zero. The orange haired Monk batted away 2 Sahuagins with her Tiger Echo Fist, with the 2 monsters bursting into bubbles, and looked around. Then she spotted Riku dashing in between the Sahuagins, the speed was so fast that the assassin became a red blur, leaving trails of bubbles from defeated monsters in his wake.  
The fighting went on, and in a short time the amount of Sahuagins decreased quickly from thousands down to hundreds, then to 90s,… But Naotsugu and Nyanta didn’t care much about the monsters other than counting down the time in their head, glancing over to Riku every now and then, the assassin’s form blurring in between the waves of monsters, a red streak in the sea of blue. The battle finally came to an end, with the final Sahuagin bursting into bubbles, leaving the rest of the Adventurers drowning in adrenaline and exhilaration. But that didn’t last long, as right after the bubbles had dispersed Riku collapsed, like a puppet with its string cut.  
“Ricchan!” Naotsugu rushed to where Riku lay, with the others following in panic seeing the red-haired teen collapsing.  
“What’s wrong with Riku-kun?!” Marielle asked worriedly  
Naotsugu turned Riku around so that he is lying face up, and the panic rose. Outwardly the red-head did not have any injuries, but his face became expressionless like a doll, his usually vibrant eyes became dull and unfocused, and his body was limp without any movement. The others watched on with worried expression, Kawara’s borderline on panic.  
“I knew it…Ricchan you idiot” Naotsugu said in frustration, using his hand to close Riku’s dull eyes while whispering quietly ‘Go to sleep Ricchan, leave the rest to us’, then stood up while holding Riku’s limp form in his arms “Let’s get going everyone”  
“What’s going on? Naotsugu? Nyanta-san?” Marielle continued asking while looking at Riku  
“Riku-chi used one of his Overskill, Madness Melody, and this is the price for it-nya” Nyanta said calmly, but Marielle could see from the were-cat’s eyes that he was also worried.  
“I thought that Overskill usually don’t have backlash other than the MP and the way to obtain it?” Shigeru asked  
“Yes, usually. Because the usual Overskills are minor things like other ways of using a skill or a bonus skill on one of your stats. But Madness Melody is different.” Naotsugu said “When you were fighting did you saw anything strange?”  
“Now that you said it, my MP and HP shot to the max, and my casting time became almost non-existence.” Kawara said with the others voicing their agreement.  
“And Riku-san’s speed became so fast I couldn’t see him clearly” Shigeru added  
“That’s Madness Melody’s effect” Naotsugu explained “When using it, Ricchan can boost the HP and MP of his allies and himself, reduce the casting time for spells and techniques, boost his own stats like speed and strength and agility.”  
“S-sugoi…such an Overskill...” Marielle said in shock  
“But, such a powerful skill came with a price right? Like now…” Kawara said while looking at the unmoving form of the assassin.  
“Of course-nya” Nyanta said “First, there is a time limit. This skill can only be used in 50 minutes max”  
“And the second, after using this skill, Ricchan will turn like this” Naotsugu said “He cannot move, and cannot interact with his surrounding, it’s like he’s stuck inside his own mind.”  
“That…” everyone was shocked into silence at the severity of the after-effect  
“He will gradually get better, don’t worry” Naotsugu reassured the others “But the time he’ll need to recover fully will depend on the amount of time he used to keep the skill going…”  
“So based on this, Riku-chi would need about 20 days to a month to be back to normal” Nyanta said  
“That long…” Shigeru said quietly  
“AH!” Kawara suddenly shouted, startling everyone “Then how will Sou-sama react to this?! We’re gonna be cut into sashimi at this rate”  
The face of the others became white as paper when Kawara said that, fearing for their lives when the bi-polar Samurai know about the state of his boyfriend. Soujirou might look cheerful and kind, but make no mistake he is one of the top Adventurers of Akiba (and Yamato). Add to that he is also very protective of his boyfriend, the fact that all of Akiba’s citizens can attest to (and many still have shivers remembering the poor sod who had tried to flirt with the clueless Riku in the middle of the market, the beating Soujirou gave the guy – who was later revealed to be a kind of monster called “genius” – was recorded as one of the most brutal to date in Akiba, on par with the sadistic Krusty).  
“Urggg….Soujirou is gonna kill me…Ricchan you troublesome child…” Naotsugu sighed, looking down at the peaceful sleeping face of the red head.  
They would be lucky if Seta Soujirou leave them in one piece when they come back to Akiba...


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter before the moment you guys are waiting for :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> Hello, I'm back again bringing a new chapters for you guys /(^0^)/ yay! After chapter 5 I was so hyped up I typed chapter 6 in 2 days :))) and this chapter is a little bit longer than the ones before it, as an apology because my school decided that we will have our exam early this year... And I still have a language proficiency test in a month and a half...f*ck my life...really I'm crying out blood here...so sorry if the next chapter came out 1 or 2 months late...I'm really sorry about this...  
> But anyway enjoy the story and do comment your ideas and your opinions, I really appreciate it. Thank you for reading.

“So that’s what happened…No wonder our MP and HP became full at that time” Minori said thoughtfully

“And the reason why Riku-nii was like that…” Touya said, remembering the panic they felt when they saw Riku lying limp in Naotsugu’s arms

“Yeah, and Soujirou-san’s reaction to it…” Isuzu shuddered

_FLASHBACK (Third person’s POV)_

_The trainee group had came to the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice to re-group with the other groups and attend the thank you party. Naotsugu and the other mentors thanked heaven for the fact that Soujirou was being held back by a horde of girls as usual. Riku was still unmoving, his status bar showed how low his MP was – the reason for the hibernating-like state the red head was in. After putting Riku into one of the offered room and reporting the situation to Krusty and Shiroe, Isuzu arrived on Nyanta’s griffin with the newly revived Rudy, who was being his normal hyper self. Naotsugu had almost let his guard down in the party, when Soujirou approached him_

_“Naotsugu-senpai, where is Riku? I thought he came with you guys”_

_“Ah…ahaha, Ricchan is sleeping in one of the room provided for us” Naotsugu laughed awkwardly, trying and failing to hide his nervousness._

_Soujirou narrowed his eyes a little, but said a cheery “I understand” then walked away, ignoring the sigh of relief from Naotsugu and the trainee group. The teal haired Samurai walked around the ball room for a while, then sneaked out towards the private rooms’ section after asking a love-struck young lady. It took Soujirou a while to find the room where Riku was in, but when he did it felt like there’s a heavy weight on his chest. Soujirou closed the door quietly, then head to the bed where Riku was lying._

_The moonlight from outside came through the window, illuminating the room and the limp form on the bed. Riku looked like he was taking a short nap, his face peaceful and his crimson red hair splayed around his head, coupled with the gentle moonlight the image made you thought this was the dwelling of an angel. But Soujirou knew that it’s not true, that the person who he loves more than anything was trapped in his own mind for who knows how long. Soujirou sat on the side of the bed, tenderly brushing a stray lock of crimson hair aside then stroking Riku’s cheek, smiling sadly:_

_“You was very brave, Riku, but also reckless…using that skill and becoming like this, you gave us all heart-attacks you know? Hurry up and come back, Riku…we still have to go on our first Valentine date when we get back remember?” Soujirou said gently to Riku, who of course couldn’t respond. The Samurai then messaged Nazuna that he would stay in this room with Riku, so everyone have fun without him. Then Soujirou took off his scarf and haori, lying on the bed next to his boyfriend._

_“Good night, Riku…”_

__The next day__

_“So Naotsugu-senpai…can you tell me why you guys didn’t tell me about Riku’s condition?” Soujirou smiled with his eyes closed, emitting a black aura which terrified Landers and Adventurers alike._

_When Naotsugu came to check on Riku with Marielle and Souryuu, they were greeted with Soujirou murderous smile from where he was sitting next to the bed. The group of trainees’ mentors had tried to run, but Soujirou had used the capture rope he got from Riku several months prior to get all of them (yes even Nyanta couldn’t escape, the rope were woven with Demon Spider’s web and covered with seals and symbols for finding and trapping multiple targets). Now they were in the Palace courtyard, with Naotsugu, Marielle, Nyanta, Shouryuu, Shigeru, Hien and Kawara tied up together in front of the pissed off Guild Master of West Wind Brigade, with other Adventurers and curious Landers peeking out to watch. At first most of them were staying in the courtyard, but the moment Soujirou released his black aura all of the Landers and Adventurers had gone to hide behind the walls or the bush surrounding the yard, too terrified to stand out in the open._

_“So-Soujirou-chan….c-calm down…I can explain…” Naotsugu stuttered, while Kawara and Shigeru had gone bone white with their soul flying out from their mouth_

_“What is your excuse this time, Senpai?” Soujirou loomed over the tied up Adventurers, who were trembling comically_

_That day the scream of mercy rang out through the Palace (and sometimes they can hear something like a cat squealing in between shouts and screams), which made Krusty smiled in sadistic pleasure and the other Adventurers shivered in fear. Shiroe only shook his head at this, too used to the sight of Soujirou going on a rampage when Riku’s well-being was involved (even though the number of those were few, which could be counted on one hand, the amount of mental scaring and collateral damages were impressive, especially since before the Apocalypse when Elder Tale were still a game)._

_END FLASHBACK_

“Please don’t talk about it…I still have nightmares about that” Naotsugu shivered then turn to Riku jokingly “It’s your fault Ricchan, using that skill then leaving us to Soujirou’s mercy…”

“Ahaha…” Riku laughed sheepishly.

“Riku-nii, had Shiroe-nii decided on who to send over the gate yet?” Touya quickly change the subject.

It had been nearly a year since their raid in Shinjuku communication tower and Shiroe’s decision to open a gate connecting the two worlds. The Round Table Conference of Akihabara (RTCA) had spread the words around to cooperate with other regions like Minami and Susukino. Plant Hwyaden had also decided on a cease fire agreement (to Indix’s protest).

At first they had started experimenting with summoning whistles at first, then the scientist team along with Regan tried to break down the runes formula on the whistles with little progress. Then Riku and his scouting team discover a relic near the mountain range that lead to Susukino and another near Akihabara, in the place which was the Royal Palace in Tokyo in the original world. The relic near the mountain range contained thousands of summoning whistles and talisman to protect, defend,…any kind you can think of. The Royal Palace relic had hundreds of documents written in Landers’s language, Adventurer’s and also ancient language which was also the language of the runes on the whistles and the transport gates. This had led to a massive breakthrough in fixing the transport gates to other servers in China, America, etc…It took them months before they could use the gates, but after that there had been a huge influx of Adventurers going through. Shiroe had had many sleepless night trying to work out a system to prevent the gate from getting overwhelmed, and only agreed to rest because Krusty – who tagged along with Nanami’s group and arrived to Yamato even before the gates were fixed – literally man-handled him to bed to have enough sleep.

Kanami’s group were offered to stay at Log Horizon’s guild house, which led to chaos and mayhem everyday (but it was a good kind of chaos). Meanwhile Akatsuki ans Minori quietly resigned when they saw Shiroe and Krusty interacting, even Rudy who was as blind as a bat when talking about love can see the affection between the two even if they tried to deny it.

“Well…” Nyanta stroked his whiskers “I think they will choose someone who can handle harsh weather, as the location of the gate is quite…peticular-nya”

“What do you mean?” Isuzu asked curiously

“That’s a secret” Riku winked playfully “It will be announced soon, so you don’t need to think about it so much”

“Yaho! What are you guys doing?” Kanami barged in with her usual enthusiasm, dragging several of her party along Riku only watched the scene with amusement, too used to Kanami hyper personality and the mayhem she brought along. The crimson haired assassin then turned his head to the window, looking at the blue sky of Akihabara with determined eyes:

‘ _Wait just a little more…Tenn-nii…everyone…we’ll return soon_ ’


	7. Chapter 6.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teaser for chapter 7 :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> Hello everyone, I'm back (temporary anyway...). Thankfully I'm only half-dead at this point...or not. I've got a day or two to rest before the deadlines comes running at me, again, so I brought you guys this :)  
> Last week's weekend (which was yesterday) was one of my rare off days, so guess what, chapter 7 is almost done! And it's certainly longer than normal chapters, as an apology for making you guys wait and a thank you for anyone who read this fic till now (^v^) You guys are my inspiration!  
> On another note had anyone seen the new anime called Tsurune? I suddenly have the urge to turn Riku into a Kyuudo practitioner....  
> Thank you for reading and chapter 7 is coming soon! So please wait patiently :)

"This is it, today is the day!"  
"ADVENTURERS, WE HAVE WAITED FOR THIS DAY LONG ENOUGH"

"Ahaha, this is the month of family dramas"

"Soujiiii~~~~~I wanna goooo!!!!!!!"  
“No, you cannot. You cannot even walk, Riku, how can you go out in this condition?! What do you think would happen if you collapse suddenly? The whole Akihabara’s population is gonna go ballistic, that’s what!” 

‘I’m gonna see you soon…Tenn-nii….minna…’


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited chapter :))))))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note:  
> Hellllooooo, I'm back, as promised B)  
> Really, I had just got back from school and I have to go update right away (before the deadlines Tsunami came at me, as my friend said :) )  
> Thank you everyone for reading this far and correcting and encouraging me in my writing, I appreciate every each of your comments, kudos and bookmark (^v^)/  
> And somehow this took an entirely different turn from what I have planned at the end of this chapter, and I would have to re-write the plot a bit....that is after I'm done with all the tests and presentations and credits war (no, seriously, I don't know how your school/university organize your credits or the like but at mine, it's always war, literally. We have to fight each other online to be able to sign in the required classes for our major, as there are many classes that every major is required to study...and the amount of seats in one class is limited, with around 2/3 of our whole school population fighting for the seats...it's not easy, the sign in web always got shut down from overload...we often jokingly called this time "The Portal Game", portal is the web's name)  
> So, got a test this week, 2 tests and a presentation the next, and the week after that is the credits war...Wish me luck guys, I'm gonna need it in order to be able to sign in the required classes next semester...  
> Sorry for ranting a little up there, enjoy reading! And thank you!

“This is it, today is the day!” Touya said excitedly next to Minori and the others as they went to the square, where practically every Adventurers in Akihabara is assembling.

In the middle of the square stood an enormous metal gate shaped like a circle, with runes carved on the surface and crystals glowing dimly at its feet. Next to the gate is a huge machine that was encased in a black metal box, with a part of it can open like a door so you can see the insides. The square was filled with excited Adventurers, and the Landers can’t help but be pulled in the festive air. Though all talks stopped the moment Krusty, Shiroe and Issac stepped on the wooden stage, everyone directed their attention to the 3, Krusty as the un-official leader of the RTCA.

“ADVENTURERS, WE HAVE WAITED FOR THIS DAY LONG ENOUGH.” Krusty shouted “THIS IS THE GATE THAT WILL LEAD US TO JAPAN, TO OUR HOME, AND OPEN THE WAY TO CONNECT OTHER SEVERS WITH THEIR OWN COUNTRY!”

The Adventurers cheered loudly, excited to be reunited with their family. Of course, there were still many who wore sad or disappointed expression, but Krusty’s next words made them focused:

“BUT! THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT WE WILL ABANDON THIS WORLD! THIS WORLD IS WHAT CONNECT ALL OF US, WHO USED TO BE JUST STRANGERS ON THE STREET. WHAT MAKES US FRIENDS, RIVALS, LOVERS, FAMILY! THIS GATE THAT CONNECT US TO THE REAL JAPAN, ALSO CONNECT OUR 2 LIVES, THE LIFE WHEN WE WERE STILL NORMAL HUMAN CHAINED BY SOCIETY’S STANDARD AND THE LIFE WHERE WE CAN BE OURSELVES. DO NOT FORGET EITHER OF THE 2, BECAUSE THEY MADE US INTO WHO WE ARE TODAY.”

Krusty ended his speech and approached the machines, to the anticipation of everyone. The Guild Master of D.D.D. pushed the button on the machines, and the crystals surrounding the gate’s foot began to glow a golden color, different from the usual bluish-white of the transport gates. Then the runes on the gate started to glow golden too, one after another. The gate’s inside began to have a transparent veil, covering the inner surface. It looked like a golden mirror with rainbow colored glass, because the veil inside was to thin it looked like see-through silk. Issac, who was choosen as the first one to go through the gate (in short, a literal guinea pig), stepped up to the transparent veil. The red haired man took a deep breath then walked into the veil, then vanished completely. Everyone waited with baited-breath for the result. A few moments later, Issac poked his head back through the veil and shouted:

“Oi, someone come help me a little? I had just stepped in the middle of a Mt.Fuji tour, now they are either gawking at me or trying to contact the police!”

But no one heard the later part, because the words “Mt.Fuji tour” alone confirmed that they had successfully connected to Japan. Deafening cheers and cries sounded out around the square, Adventurers hugging each other and even Landers in happiness. Shiroe and Krusty, both in their RTCA uniform stepped through the gate to the other side, where Issac was waiting with dozen or so tourists either gawking at them or frantically calling the police.

The next few months passed by like a whirlwind. Originally in the game, a day in Elder Tale equaled 2 hours in Japan, and that still applied even after the Apocalypse. But thanks to the connected gate, the two different timeline had merged into one, meaning as long as the gate is still connected they wouldn’t need to calculate the time difference. The RTCA and other servers representatives had gone through the gate and had a meeting with Japan’s government and after that with their own countries leaders. The situation quickly escalated in to a politics battle, with other countries demanding the Adventurers to open other gates in their own country and forcing the Adventurers to return to their home whether they wanted it or not. And being the crafty bastard he is (Shiroe’s word), Krusty easily see through their attempt and thwarted their plans like swatting aside an annoying fly. He reasoned that the gate alone took them months to create, with most of the time spent to decipher runes and finding the best combination for the connection. The other servers have neither the resource nor the manpower to build one, and the crystals powering the gate are one of a kind, they took the recess mana in the air from the techniques used daily by Adventurers and the mana in the nature to maintain its energy. This type of crystal wouldn’t re-appear in another centuries, and while the Adventurers can live until then, the human from Earth cannot. And speaking of that, Adventurers had effectively become immortal by Earth’s standard, what with them being able to be revived and cannot age normally. Many government officials from countries had wanted to have Adventurers in their army, but Shiroe quickly stamped on those thoughts with all of the viciousness of the “Villain glasses”. The Enchanter had stated that any Adventurers coming through the gate will be monitored closely, and have to sign a contract that basically does not allow them to:

1\. Adventurers cannot join any associations, organizations or armies in any countries, even if it’s from their birth country.

2\. Adventurers cannot attack any normal human unless they were provoked first or they were defending themselves or others.

3\. In situations where Adventurers have to fight, they cannot use any special attack/control techniques unless it’s an emergency.

4\. Adventurers cannot talk about the important events or quest in Elder Tale to other human.

5\. Adventurers only answer to the Elder Tale Conference (ETC - which consist of RTCA and other server’s representative)

And in return the government also had to sign a contract that have the following conditions as the base:

1\. The government cannot force any Adventurer to do as they wish, and cannot threaten Adventurers’ family or friends to force them to submit.

2\. The government cannot know any information about quests, events, Landers’ information or the Adventurers’ personal information (post Apocalypse).

3\. The government cannot order or let any human through the gate without signing a contract made by Shiroe.

4\. The government cannot use any of Elder Tale’s products unless permitted by the ETC (which include ores, crystals, meat of beasts in Elder Tale, herbs, potions, etc…)

Of course there were many more clauses in the agreement, but this was the very basic of it. Thanks to Krusty’s terrifying political ability, Riku and his team’s information gathering (which was scarily accurate as usual) and Shiroe’s ability as the only Level 95 Scribe in Elder Tale, the government officials had had no other choice than backing down.

A town at the base of Mt.Fuji quickly became the place where Adventurers come and went the most. Ikeda town (A/N: this is just a made up name, so it may or may not be real) used to be a quiet town consist of mostly the elderly and a small percent of kids and teenagers, but the Adventurers came and it became a lively town with elves and were-people walking around like normal. But the town don’t let visitors in easily, as it’s the closest to Mt.Fuji where they can reach the gate the fastest. For visitors and tourists, they can go to Meinichi town, which is near Ikeda town, as it’s also the place where many Adventurers went to. The amount of tourists going to this town or Mt.Fuji skyrocketed in just 5 months, right after a trading contract had been agreed between Kinjou Family of Yamato, the ETC and the world government.

Meanwhile, around the world many Adventurers had reunited with their family, and many others had had to disown themselves because their family was either trying to make investment through them or abusing their rights. As Naotsugu had jokingly said, "Ahaha, this is the month of family dramas! ”. Most of the younger Adventurers had reunited with their family, but their new status as non-human had caused rift in some cases and troubles in others. ETC’s solution to that was to make being Adventurers a job, as all of the Adventurers old or young had been too used to be independent both emotionally and financially from their parents to return to their normal life. Thanks to the trade agreement, along with the money exchange rate between the two worlds, this decision was easy to solve.

But he trouble didn’t stop there. 3 months after the gate was opened, warp-gates started appearing randomly around Japan. Those gates connected Japan to the monsters’ nets, which thankfully were of Goblins and Sanhuagins, and the amount aren’t much compare to a small quest, each time a warp-gate open there’s only 7 to 8 monsters go through before the gate closed. And Shiroe had noticed the patterns to all the gates’ appearance thanks to the science department. Due to the gate connecting the 2 worlds, a small amount of mana had flown into Japan, causing the warp-gates, which connect Japan to 5 quest-fields. Quest-field is a place where low level monsters reside, and low level Adventurers usually went here to train and level up. The 5 quest-fields were in Kyoto, Tokyo, Akita, Fukui and Okinawa, and the ETC had built a guard-post in each city to take out the monsters.

Things gradually died down after half a year or so, with the Adventurers becoming a quite common site for people of Japan. Life return to normal, or as normal as it can be with Elves and Were-people and Griffins going around, especially in Fukuoka.

Back to our resident information broker, who is forbidden to leave the guild house after over-using one of his Overskills, again, and cannot walk by himself as a price, well, let see what he’s doing shall we?

“Soujiiiiii~~~~ I wanna gooooo!!!!!” Riku whined pitifully from his spot in the wheel-chair, which was a rare sight that had Log Horizon and West Wind Brigade’s members gawking in disbelief (the ones who’s not a former Tea Party member anyway)

“No, you cannot. You cannot even walk, Riku, how can you go out in this condition?! What do you think would happen if you collapse suddenly? The whole Akihabara’s population is gonna go ballistic, that’s what!” Soujirou said with an air of finality

“Bu-but! It’s a collab-concert! Tenn-nii will be there! And Yamato-san, and Nagi, and Mitsu, and Sougo-san, and Tama and Iori…And Re:vale too! I want to see them with my own eyes! After all this time I can finally meet them…even if they can’t see me, it’s okay! Please, Souji…” Riku said whiningly, then unknowingly (or not) used his most lethal weapon: The infamous Puppy Dog Eyes of Doom.

“…No means no, Riku…” Meanwhile, the famed Sword Saint was struggling to not cave before his boyfriend’s begging eyes.

“That thing make me feel like I kicked a downed puppy and danced on its mother’s grave…” Naotsugu said quietly “And I wasn’t the one who opposed to this…”

“But what concert is Riku-san talking about?” Isuzu aksed

“The Autumn Concert where most of the famous male idol group are gonna participate in…most notable are Re:vale, TRIGGER and Riku’s old group IDOLiSH7” Nazuna said “There were a Summer Concert for female idol groups several months ago, and this time it’s for male groups. It’s a new project so there’s no guarantee that there would be one next year.”

“No wonder Riku-nii wanted to go so bad…” Touya said, turning his attention back to the arguing couple, and everyone could clearly see the resolve in Soujirou’s eyes slowly crumbling.

“Well, I would normally oppose to this like Soujirou” Shiroe said, making everyone turn to him “But Riku’s condition would be better in about 1 to 2 weeks from now, and the concert is also around that time. And this could be an early present for our informant for his hard work all this time”

“But..” Soujirou protested weakly

“If you are that worried you can always come with him, Soujirou-chan” Shiroe cut the samurai off “And besides, many of us are also going too. Your guild for example, there are about 5 or 6 people who can go, the rest would have to stay back here and watch through the screen we installed at the square. You guys can go with each other because after the concert Riku would still have to go take the reports from our guard-posts anyway”

“Urgh…Fineeeee” Soujirou sighed in defeat while Riku cheered with the others in happiness

‘ _Maa…I can’t really deny that he’s the happiest since when the gate was successfully created_ ’ the teal haired Samurai thought while looking at his cheering boyfriend fondly.

‘ _I’m gonna see you soon…Tenn-nii….minna…_ ’ Riku thought giddily


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Autumn Concert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: I'm aliveeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! Somehow I had lived through the weeks of nightmares, all of my first term exams are done, and I have got a whole week off. Yay for me!  
> Sorry for making you guys wait for so long, as I can't think of anything when I'm in the middle of exam period, but thank you to anyone who have read this far, you guys are my motivation, not to mention many others who are writing their own stories for this fandom, you are my inspiration! Hopefully I can churn out more ideas for this, as it had turned a very different direction from what I have planned, but oh well, no more crying over spilled milk.  
> Here is chapter 8, enjoy /(^0^)/  
> P.S: if anyone have any suggestions or ideas for what will happen next or on how to improve the story, you guys can comment below, I would be very grateful :)

**Tokyo, Japan**

The Autumn Concert’s venue was filled with people, as one of the largest concert this year next to the Summer Concert 6 months ago. When the Elder Tale fiasco died down somewhat, some of the most influential figures in the music and entertainment industry saw the opportunity and quickly decided to open 2 biggest concert to date, at the price of stopping temporally some other annual concerts and live. The fans didn’t complain though, as the two concert assembled an impressive line-up. The Summer concert, which had been successfully organized, had most of the female solo idols and idol groups joining, for example the famous singer Utakata Hikari, Sakaki Ryouko, or the famous groups like Tri-star, AKB0048,… The Autumn concert had most of the male idols and idol group joining, most notable were Re:vale, TRIGGER, IDOLiSH7, Six Gravity, Procellarum,… The tickets were also sold out at an alarming rate, more than 50 thousand tickets sold out in just under 9 hours.

Which led us to the present, in the backstage where most of the idols were chatting and relaxing before the concert. Most of the younger members of the groups were sitting at the center table, playing cards while chatting animatedly. The older members were either taking naps (Yamato and Shun), exchanging tips on acting or on how to control your eccentric teammate (Ryuu, Kai and Haru). Meanwhile, one of Procellarum’s members, Minazuki Rui sat silently next to his partner, Kannazuki Iku – who was conversing cheerily with Six Gravity’s Kakeru and I7’s Mitsuki but still glanced at the green haired male out of the corner of his eyes from time to time.

Rui observed the other idols, like he always do, and thought back to several months ago when the idol groups first met after being briefed about the concert (Trigger was absent, busying taking the last scenes for their music MV). When they were introducing each other, I7’s members had collectively gone silent and teary eyed when Iku introduced himself. I7’s leader, Yamato had then explained that for some reason, Iku’s voice sounded almost exactly like their former-center, Nanase Riku. Rui had wondered in his head, what had happened to Nanase Riku to get those reaction out of the normally full of life IDOLiSH7? Part of him had guessed it, but Rui choose to say nothing on it, as did other members of Six Gravity and Procellarum. They just silently support the clearly still grieving idols, even if it had been almost a year since their first concert.

Watching the idols bantering with each other was quite amusing, Rui thought to himself while observing the playful banter between You and Tamaki about whether King Pudding or Yoru’s home-made pudding was better, with said person sweat-dropping at the side. Arata and Aoi were asking Yuki and Momo for acting tips, and Gaku was sitting next to Hajime and Iori talking about who-knows-what. The only other idol who sat alone was Kujou Tenn, who seemed to trying to get some shut eye like some others but failed to do so, no thanks to the arguing pair of Koi and Arata, with Kakeru acting as the mediator. The pale-haired male may seem innocent on the outside, enough to be named “the modern day angel” by his fans, but hidden under it was quite a poisonous tongue and a cold personality, being a major perfectionist. But Rui can easily see the turmoil behind the layers of defense Tenn had put up, partly due to Trigger’s other member effort in thawing the ‘ice’, so to speak. The longing in Tenn’s eyes was quite apparent to Rui’s ever observant gaze, and as per usual the green haired male choose to say nothing about it. Even if that longing always seemed to appear when Iku started talking, Rui thought in distaste, a rare feeling of irritation and jealousy flaring in his chest.

“Everyone, please get ready, the concert will start in 2 hours. The make-up artists and costume have arrived” Tsumugi said from the room’s door, interrupting Rui’s train of thought.

“Come on, Rui, let’s go!” Iku said cheerfully to his partner, to which Rui nodded and took the brown haired male’s outstretched hand.

 _‘Something big is gonna happen…I can feel it…’_ Rui thought absent-mindedly

 

**At the stands…**

“I’m so excited! This is the first concert I can see with my own eyes!” Isami said excitedly, clenching her white light-stick and TRIGGER fan.

“And why are we here again..?” Shouryuu deadpanned, holding his Re:vale fan in a lack-luster way.

“Maa, consider it a vacation” Hien slapped the blue haired werewolf’s back, then said in a mischevious tone “And don’t pretend that you don’t like them, everyone know you’re a die-hard Re:vale’s fan”

“I-I only like the beat of their songs!” Shouryuu said with a red face.

“Whatever you say” Hien ony smirked smugly. Meanwhile, Riku only looked at the ruckus the group was making with soft eyes.

To blend in a little, all of them had opted for the normal clothes they usually wear in Elder Tale, which thankfully didn’t stand out in Japan. For Hien, Shouryuu and Nazuna, with their ears and tails it was quite hard to hide, thankfully it was solved by some hats and mini-dimensional bags (it was Minori’s idea, the were-people can put their tail in the mini bag – which function like a normal dimensional bag with the inside bigger than the outside, the only difference was that the mini-bags were much smaller – then tie the bag to their lower back).

Riku was also wearing normal shirt and sport pants, with a jacket and scarf due to Soujirou’s mother-hen tendency. The red haired Assassin had an eye-patch over his marigold-colored eye. Like Soujirou, Riku also has an Overskill for his eye. But different from other optical Overskill, which involve both eyes and can be activated at the user’s will, Riku’s Overskill only work for his right eye (which partly explain the marigold coloring) and cannot be deactivated. Even though it cost little of Riku’s MP, the eye can see other’s status board even if they were trying to conceal it, have night vision like every other Assassins (this applied to both eyes though), have Hawk’s vision without needing the special eye-drop and see weak points of monsters (like which part deals the most damage, etc…). The white medical eye-patch helped Riku reduce the distracting sight of status board of others (people, Landers and Adventurers and even Earth’s people alike, objects, animals, insects,..), but wearing that coupled with the wheelchair made passerby gave him pitying glances, which was very irritating.

“Ricchan, it’s starting” Soujirou said gently to his fuming boyfriend, who was no doubt thinking about the pitying glances he received on the way to their seat.

“Ah, you’re right! It’s Re:vale!” Riku broke out of his train of thought and returned to his giddy self when the famous idol unit got on stage.

 

“Hello everyone! How are you today?!” Momo yelled cheerfully into the mic, and the fan screamed in excitement.

“We welcome you all to the first ever, and hopefully not the last, Autumn Concert.” Yuki said calmly, in contrast to his enthusiastic partner.

“To start the show tonight, Re:vale will bring you…” Momo winked and chorused with Yuki “Silver Sky!”

 

Back to Riku’s group, Shouryuu’s inner fanboy finally won out and the werewolf started to wave the light stick along with other fans cheerfully, purposefully ignoring Hien snickering right beside him. Sooner than the fans would have liked, the song ended, and the whole stage’s lightning went dark. But once again deafening cheers rang out, as once the lightning came back there stood TRIGGER, with Kujou Tenn in the middle and Yaotome Gaku and Tsunashi Ryuunosuke flanking him at both sides. They were performing their new song, “Last Dimension”, and this time Riku also joined in the cheering with other fans.

Next came IDOLiSH7 with “Perfection Gimmick”, Riku felt something welled up in his heart, and his sight became a little blurry. The six idols on the stage were performing, shining so brightly, their emotions reaching out to the audience, bringing the whole stadium into their rhythm. Soujirou only smiled and gently hold Riku’s hand to support the emotional red head. Riku wiped his tears and muster the most cheerful smile to Soujirou, before going back to watching the group singing and dancing.

Other idol groups like Six Gravity and Procellarum also came up to perform their own songs, “Gravitic Love” and “Lots of Love” respectively. It also didn’t escape their notice that one of Procellarum’s members has an-almost-the-same voice as Riku’s. There was an interacting-with-the-fans section of the concert, to which many hilarious comments came out from the idols, mainly from the ever blunt Tamaki and Arata, the cheerful trio Iku, Takeru and Koi, the enigmatic Shun, the excited Momo and Mitsuki…

The climax of the concert though, is the collab songs, “Tsuki no uta” from Procellarum ans Six Gravity, “Natsu Shiyouze” from TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7, “Happy Day Creation” from Re:vale and IDOLiSH7, and the last song “Welcome! Future World” from all idol groups (A/N: actually this song just have Re:vale, TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7, but as this is a concert with many groups I personally think that having a song where everyone sing together sounds much more fun).

 

“Ah~I’m beat~” Momo said after they had gone back to their joint dressing room, collapsing into the sofa.

“Me too” Yamato said, not even bothering to change out of his Future World T-shirt and jeans (A/N: this is just an AU, and I don’t even remember what they wear in the real song…).

“Make that three” Misuki said tiredly from one of the bean bags scattering around the room.

“Four” Yuki said while cuddling Momo, who didn’t seem to notice.

“Are we playing a game or something?” Gaku asked, watching the younger members of Six-Gravi and Procella cuddling each other on the largest bean bag.

“Who knows. Anyway you guys should go and change, it’s quite chilly outside” Ryuu said to said groaning pile of bodies (which consist of Koi, Kakeru, Arata, You, Iku, Rui, Aoi and Yoru).

“Haiiiiii~”

“Manager said that we can rest for a bit and then go to the nearby restaurant, they have prepared a celebratory party for us” Iori said, already done changing and not even looking up from his phone.

“Won’t we be surrounded by fans the moment we go out though?” Aoi wondered.

“That’s why they made us stay here for a while until the fans had gone” Hajime picked up his phone from the table and sat down on another sofa next to Shun, who is sipping his tea that he got from god-knows-where “Just use this time to rest and relax”

“Does anyone want some drinks? There’s a vending machine near the back door if I’m not wrong.” Sougo spoke up, being one of the first to be done changing.

“Can I have some juice? Any kind of juice is fine” Iku said in a small voice so as not to wake Rui, who is nodding off next to him on the beanbag “And orange juice for Rui too”

“I’ll have some sport drink then, and water for Nagi” Mitsuki spoke up from another beanbag with Nagi napping on his shoulder.

“I’ll go with you then Sougo-kun, you can’t bring back all of those drinks in one go” Ryuu said, with Kai also standing up to help.

 

The three went out to the vending machines, which thankfully were inside the stadium and not outside, they couldn’t risked being surrounded by enthusiastic fans at this time. It was when Kai took the last bottle of drink into his arms that Sougo heard noises from the outside.

“Do you hear anything?”

“Now that you say it…” Kai said “It sounds like someone is chased by fans outside…”

“Let’s go look…” Ryuu said, putting the drinks he was holding on a nearby bench and went to the exit door near them.

Ryuu opened the door and peaked out, with Kai and Sougo doing the same. What greeted them was a mismatched group of teens hiding behind the trees and bushes with their backs to the door (said trees and bushed also conveniently hides the back door). Ryuu notices that three of the five had animal features like ears and tails, which could be chalked up to cosplay, except the tails are waving sides to sides and the ears were twitching nervously. Before any of the three can say anything, one of the teens – the one with blue hair and ears and tail – turned around and saw them. Kai only smiled and said, careful to keep his voice down:

“Are you hiding from someone? You guys can hide in here then”

“Ah, we wouldn’t want to intrude…” Shouryuu said, ever the polite one.

“We don’t have time for this, they are getting near!” Isami whisper-shouted, dragging Kawara along.

The five went in and close the door right when a horde of girls and boys went pass the door, wondering to themselves where the five were. Isami sighed in relief, then straighten herself:

“Thank you so much for helping us. I’m Isami, and this is Kawara, Shouryuu, Hien and Nazuna”

“You’re welcome. I’m Fuduki Kai, you can call me Kai”

“Tsunashi Ryuunosuke, you can call me Ryuu. Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Ousaka Sougo. May I ask why were they chasing you?”

“Ah, as you can see some of us have these” Nazuna said, pointing at her fox ears “They recognized us as Adventurers from Elder Tale, so they surrounded us and then we panicked and high-tailed out of the stands”

“Adventurers? Elder Tale? Ah, you mean the incident almost a year ago!” Ryuu said

“Yup, that’s right.” Hien rubbed his nose smugly, before suddenly being grabbed by the shoulders and shake back and forth by, surprisingly, Sougo.

“You are from Elder Tale?! Is there someone named Riku there?! Is he here?!”

“Ca-calm do-down” Hien stuttered through the shaking, eyes becoming comical swirls “So di-dizzy…”

“Can you release our friend first though?” Isami said while Shouryuu and Nazuna were snickering at Hien’s predicament.

“A-ah…I-I’m sorry…” Sougo said while releasing Hien, who wobble unsteadily for a moment before righting himself, coughing into his hand to hide his embarrassment.

“There is someone named Riku, and he did come with us but we lost each other when we were chased” Kawara finally spoke up, having party successful in calming down her blush from meeting her idol face to face.

“Hm? Souji? Where are you guys…” Nazuna suddenly put her hand on her human ear and spoke as if she’s holding a phone while turning around, her back facing the group.

“Ah, that’s them” Kawara explained, pointing at the drinks on the nearby bench

“Shouldn’t you guys go back to your friends? The drinks wouldn’t be cold for much longer”

“We totally forgot about that” Ryuu said sheepishly “Do you want to come to the waiting room with us? We are resting and waiting for the fans to disperse a little more to be safe”

“Well, if you step out now you will be mobbed by hordes of girls and boys of all ages” Shouryuu shuddered “I’ll take you up on your offer then”

“I’ll stay here to wait for our friends, we will contact you later for directions” Isami said, with Nazuna nodding in agreement while still communicating with Soujirou.

“That communicating way of yours, are you using bluetooths?” Kai asked Kawara

“A-ah, no, we don’t use blu-bluetooths…well it’s li-like you’re in a game…and have a status board and eve-everything…and tech-technically you can co-communicate with someone on your friend-list as long as you pushed the CALL button, a-and the putting your hand on your ear thing…it’s to help you hear the other side of the line better…” Kawara said, blushing madly while stumbling over her words.

“That’s convenient alright. Oh here we are” Ryuu commented, then pushed open a door on the hallway “We’re back, sorry for the wait. And we have visitors”

“You’re late Ryuu. And who are they?” Gaku asked, zeroing on the three Adventurers immediately.

“I’m Shouryuu, and this is Hien and Kawara. Sorry for intruding like this, your friends saw us being chased by your fans and nearby teenagers and decided to help out.” Souryuu spoke up, as Hien was too busy snickering at Kawara being a blushing mess next to her idol.

“Why were you guys chased? Are you professional cosplayers or something?” Arata asked while receiving his orange juice from Kai.

“We are Adventurers from Elder Tale, ya know the incident almost a year ago? And these are real, not fake, by the way” Hien said, pointing at his ears and tails while sitting down with the other two.

At Hien’s answer, I7’s member awoke as one and started bombarding the three with rapid fire questions:

“Wait, Elder Tale?!” Mitsuki shouted, accidentally woke Nagi up.

“Mitsuki, what’s wrong?” Nagi asked groggily in English.

“Elder Tale?! Do you know of anyone named Riku?!” Iori asked desperately.

“That’s right, you said one of your friend’s name is Riku right?!” Sougo said in realization.

“Wait wait, calm down guys, let them answer first” Yamato quickly took control of the situation, reigning in his teammates while the others only look on in curiosity, especially TRIGGER.

“Let me ask first, who is this Riku to you?” Shouryuu said seriously.

“He’s our first center, a talented singer” Iori admitted, ignoring Re:vale and TRIGGER’s burning gazes of curiosity.

“He’s our precious friend” Nagi continued without hesitation

“He’s like family” Tamaki finally spoke up

“To tell you the truth, when we were transported to Elder Tale, we only use our game character’s name, usually no one ask for other’s real name unless they allow it. So we are not sure if our Riku is the one you are looking for or not” Kawara sighed

“Oh, here you are. Sorry for intruding~” Nazuna suddenly poked her head in from the door way.

What I7’s members were going to say died in their mouth when they saw a familiar person behind the two female strangers. Nanase Riku only smiled gently at the dumb-strucked faces of his friends and also his twin brother.

_“It’s been a long time, everyone. I’m back”_


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:  
> I am very very very sorry for the long delay...again. I admit I'm running out of ideas for this...and the amount of work from school is killing me...  
> This chapter can be quite...boring...toward the end because I haven't think of any ideas yet. If anyone have new ideas or any suggestion then I would be very grateful. And I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes.  
> Thank you and enjoy.

Chapter 9

_“It’s been a long time, everyone. I’m back”_

There was a period of silence, before it was broken by Mitsuki, who lunged in Riku’s direction to hug the red head, with Nagi and Tamaki following suit.

“RIKU/RIKKUN!!” Mitsuki, Nagi and Tamaki shouted with tears in their eyes.

“Welcome back Riku, you gave us quite the scare” Yamato ruffled Riku’s hair playfully.

“Sorry for that, Yamato-san, everyone” Riku smiled in the middle of the impromptu group hug.

“Na-Nanase-san…welcome back” Iori said gently, apparently decided not to join in the group hug consisting of Riku, Mitsuki, Nagi, Tamaki and Sougo.

“I’m back, Iori” Riku only smiled, reaching out to take Iori’s hand into his own warm one.

Others only watched the reunion in silence, some of them also had tears in their eyes at the touching scene (i.e: Momo, Kakeru, Koi). But then Tenn spoke up, surprising everyone:

“Riku…?”

“Tenn-nii…It’s been a long time…” Riku said sadly, the others had already moved out of the hug in surprise.

“Eh!! Kujou-san is your brother?!” Mitsuki yelled

Soujirou, who had been silently standing behind Riku, only smiled and pushed Riku’s wheelchair to Tenn’s direction, which directed everyone’s attention to it. Riku ignored the stares and only focused on Tenn’s frozen body (figuratively, of course), and opened his arms when he reached his twin, smiling gently. Tenn’s face scrunched up briefly, before the pale haired idol ducked down to hug Riku tightly, burying his face into his twin’s shoulder. Riku in turn wrapped his arms around the slightly shaking shoulders of his dear twin brother, whispering gently:

“Don’t worry, Tenn-nii…I’m here…It’s okay…”

After the emotional scenes, Tenn pulled out from the hug with slightly damp eyes which everyone pretended to ignore, and looked at Riku’s form worriedly, both hands still holding onto the red head’s shoulders gently:

“Riku, what happened to you? Why are you…” The pale haired idol trailed off sadly.

“It’s a long story, but don’t worry, this is only temporary, because a certain someone is being a worry-wart” Riku said, turning a disgruntled glance at Soujirou, who is standing silently to the side.

“It’s because you gave us all heart-attacks when you collapsed, again. Your sense of self-preservation needs improving, or we will have the second and third coming of the Apocalypse by the hands of Akihabara’s Adventurers.” Soujirou said

“And you are…?” Mitsuki asked, noticing the three new additions hadn’t introduce themselves.

“I’m Soujirou, and they are Nazuna and Isami. And this little trouble magnet is Riku, though most of you already knew him without doubt.” Soujirou answered, ruffling Riku’s crimson locks playfully.

“Riku…how do you know IDOLiSH7? And the Elder Tale thing, what was it about?...” Tenn asked with some hesitation.

“You mean…you didn’t know?” Iori said in realization.

“Of course he wouldn’t, as I highly doubt Kujou Takamasa would allow him to have any information regarding his old family” Riku said the elder Kujou’s name with surprising contempt “I was scouted by President Takanashi with them to be IDOLiSH7, and two weeks before our first concert I was involved in the ‘Elder Tale Incident’ as it was called”

“Basically Elder Tale was a rather famous online game, and the Incident was that all of us players who were waiting for the game’s expansion were transported into the game, in an entirely different dimension. We had tried very hard to go back here, and finally succeeding after nearly 5 years in Elder Tale time” Isami explained curtly.

“5 YEARS???!!!!”

“Well 2 hours here equal a day in Elder Tale, so the time difference was big. But we can’t age normally there either way, and when the gate lead to here was opened the timelines had settled down so it became normal again” Hien said.

‘And I didn’t know about it…Riku could have died and I wouldn’t have known anything…’ Tenn came to a startling realization, and suddenly felt heavy. The change in Tenn’s emotion didn’t escape his twin.

“Tenn-nii…whatever you are thinking about, don’t. It’s not your fault, or anyone else for that matter. Please don’t blame yourself, you had already sacrificed enough.” Riku said sadly, putting a hand on his twin’s cheek.

“Riku…”

“They are completly imerged in their own world...” Gaku said with a poker face.

“Why am I seeing rainbow and sparkling flowers around them?” Koi rubbed his eyes furiously.

“You are not the only one...” Kakeru said next to his partner.

“This is too much pink for today.” Arata deadpanned, shielding his and Aoi eyes.

“Is this the joint power of the ‘Morden day’s Angel’ and ‘Akiba’s Crimson Seraph’?...Too much...this is too much...” Isami swayed in her spot, affected by the ‘bro-con’ aura from the twins.

“Isami, get a hold of yourself! Soujirou-sama, help....” Kawara panicked at her guild mate’s condition, and turned to her Guild Master to call for help, but “Gahhh!! Soujirou-sama is frozennnn!!!!!”

“His soul is coming out of his mouth!” Hien yelled, freaked out by the sight of the famed Sword Saint standing frozen with a zen-expressionon his face and his soul flying out.

“The famed Sword Saint of Akiba...knocked out from this...” Shouryuu whimpered, while Nazuna just went around taking pictures with her camera from god-knows-where.

“Haaahhh...Nazuna-san, please stop taking pictures” Riku sighed and quickly took control of his friends “Hien, Shouryuu, Kawara, calm down. Isami too. Souji, stop standing there and sit down, or so help me the next sleep-over you are taking the couch”

Soujirou suddenly re-appered next to Riku and sit on the chair near them, making the others blink in astonishment at the speed and amusement at the threat.

 _‘Doesn’t that sounded like the kind of threat a wife make to her husband?’_ some of them couldn’t help but wonder.

“Now that everyone had calmed down...” Yamato said teasingly towards the Adventurers, before turning to Riku “I think we all want to know about what happened when the incident occured.”

“As per the agreement between Elder Tale Conference and the United Nations, we can’t say too much about it, but I think we can answer the basic questions.” Soujirou leaned back on the couch.

“What exactly does ‘Adventurer’ mean? I mean does it like in the games where you accept request and killing monsters or going into the dungeon?” Tamaki asked enthusiastically.

“Well, you got that right. Basically when we were transported to Elder Tale it was literally being transported into a game with you as a characters, you have HP and MP and everything, and magic and summons, etc...” Hien counted on his fingers nonlachantly.

“Wow, that’s awesome!” Koi said with stars in his eyes.

“Then why is Riku like this?” Tenn asked calmly, but even unobservant people like Tamaki, Kakeru, Arata and Koi can see his worry as plain as day.

“It’s because your reckless brother used one of his more dangerous technique to save us when we were trying to conquere a dungeon full of high-level monsters. While we were thankfull, he gave us all a heart attack when he suddenly collapsed and say he can’t feel his legs.” Soujirou’s uncaring tone would have fooled everyone in the room, except...

“You can try to pretend to be cool all you want Souji, we all know who was the one that practically carried Ricchan all over Akihabara to find a high-level healer. And even after it was confirmed that Ricchan’s conditon is only temporally, you didn’t leave Ricchan side for a moment even until now.” Nazuna said teasingly.

“O-of course I am worried...” Soujirou blushed in embarassment.

“Why do I suddenly have the urge to kill someone...” Tenn muttered darkly, making others around him back away from his black aura.

“Tenn-nii?” Riku asked cluelessly, to the astonishment of the idols.

“He doesn’t even notice Tenn’s murderous face...” Gaku said in disbelieve.

“So that’s the infamous ‘rose-tinted glasses of brotherly love’....” Nagi delivered the punch line with a straght face.

“...you can call it ‘brocons’ instead of that...” Iori mumbled.

“Pot, meet kettle” Yamato tsukkomi-ed right back.

“Nazuna-nee, please don’t tease Souji, he’s gonna combust any moment now...” Riku sweat-dropped.

“But Ricchan, he hadn’t admitted to us that you guys are going out” Nazuna pouted “We were just waiting for his confirmation, do you guys know how many people are making bets?!”

“Why are you making bets on our love life any way?!” Riku whined.

Mitsuki suddenly notice the air around them is becoming colder, and looked around before zero-ing on the curpit – a certain fuming twin who was trying to control his temper. The orange haired man can understand Kujou’s plight though, as he would feel almost the same thing if Iori has a lover. Looking over the squabbling group of Adventurers, Mitsuki could only hope the mismatched pair can get over Kujou Tenn’s ire.

“Riku, what is it about you dating with someone?” Tenn asked with a cold voice that send chills down their spines.

“Tenn-nii…Sorry, I was gonna tell you but you know why I can’t…” Riku scratched the back of his head sheepishly, then hugged Soujirou’s arm “But to make it official, Souji and I are dating right now”

“Congratulation…” Iori said plainly.

“Hoh~ congrats to you two!” Nagi exclaimed.

“Oh…is that so…” Tenn said, then sighed “I can’t say that I agree with this, but I had lost any right to protest ever since then…”

“Tenn-nii…”

“I am doing my best in protecting Riku from his own selflessness so you don’t have to worry that much, Kujou-san” Souji reassured the pale haired man.

“Sorry to interrupt but manager had just called me and said that almost all the fans have gone home so it’s quite safe to go outside now” Iori spoke up, his phone already in his hand from who-knows-when.

“Let’s go meet our President and Managers, Riku. They were also very worried about you.” Yamato said to the red head, then turn to the other Adventurers “You guys can come too, I don’t think they would mind”

“Thank you Yamato-san” Riku said, easily see through Yamato’s intention of letting the twins have more time together.

The green haired man only smiled and started going towards the exit with the other idols to walk to the restaurant near the venue. As it was already nearing midnight, the outside was quite chilly with very few people, so the idols didn’t have to disguise themselves heavily like normal, hats and face masks were enough, not counting the warm clothes. While IDOLiSH7 wanted to talk to Riku, they also know that Riku loves his brother very much and must have missed Tenn and vice versa. So they let the twins have their own conversation at the back of the group, content to just watch the sight of their dear friend being there and okay.

“How was it? Living in Elder Tale I mean” Tenn asked Riku while pushing his wheelchair along.

“It’s not that bad, really. We were panicked and desperate at first, I mean who wouldn’t be when you were suddenly transported into a foreign place. But most of us quickly got used to it, and the guilds were formed, then the Round Table Conference. It was quite hetic, but not the bad kind” Riku answered while smiling gently.

“And the…guilds...how was it? Are you in any?” Tenn looked at the others in front of them.

“My guild is called Log Horizon…our Guild Master is a workaholic man who cherished his friends very much. We are quite few I number, but it’s like living with a family.” Riku said fondly “By the way, Hien and Shouryuu are in the same guild, the Crescent Moon Alliance and Kawara, Isami, Nazuna and Souji are in the West Wind Brigade. Souji is also a Guild Master.”

“…That guy is a Guild Master?... It’s quite unbelievable…He’s strong then?” Tenn asked skeptically.

“Hai. He’s one of the strongest Samurai class in Yamato and is also labeled Sword Saint by the system. There are only a few Adventurers in Yamato who has the title.” Riku said cheerfully.

“Hahhh…only you Riku…only you…” Tenn sighed.

“Tenn-nii?”

“It’s nothing. Look, we have arrived already.”

When they got inside the reserved restaurant (which was one of the few in the city that open 24/7), it was Rinto who came out to greet them. Re:vale’s manager noticed the new addition, but after receiving some explanations from Hajime and Gaku, he welcomed them with a warm smile and lead the group up to the second floor. Tsumugi, who was talking with Anesagi and Tsukishiro, Six Gravity’s manager noticed the idols and was about to call out to them but stopped short the moment she saw the familiar shade of red hair on Ryuu’s back. Anesagi greeted the idols and noticed that Tsumugi seemed to have frozen where she stood, so they turned towards the young manager:

“Tsumugi, what’s wro…Ah! Why are you crying?!” The pink haired manager panicked, which snapped Tsumugi out of her trance to see everyone looking at her worriedly.

“Ah…I’m fine…more importantly…Riku-san…are you really Riku-san…?” Tsumugi asked the red head who had got off Ryuu’s back and was standing unsteadily, to which Tenn immediately reacted and support him with Ryuu.

“Sorry for worrying you, manager. I’m back.” Riku smiled gently.

“I’m glad you are back. We have missed you.” Tsumugi walked up to Riku and hug him gently.

Meanwhile, Six Gravity and Procella had went inside to give the reuniting people some space, pulling the Adventurers with them, except Soujirou of course. Gaku and Ryuu also went in, after making sure Riku can stand without needing support. When Riku and Tsumugi separated from their hug, Nagi and Mitsuki had pulled Banri and Otoharu towards them, and Riku received two bone-crushing hugs from the men. It was after that that Souji noticed the minor trembling in Riku’s legs, and gently got the stubborn red head to sit back in his wheelchair.

“Riku-kun, your legs…” Banri trailed off worriedly.

“Don’t worry Banri-san, I’m fine. This’s only temporary. It will get better in no time.” Riku reassured the quietly fretting Banri.

After the impromptu reunion, Riku and the Adventurers were introduced to the other staffs and directors, with I7’s members’ eyes following Riku like a hawk. The Adventurers knew but say nothing on the matter, as he understood their fear of Riku disappearing suddenly like last time. The celebratory meal was only for formality shakes, as the idols got a week off and had planned to go to Okinawa again for their vacation. It was then that Hien spoke up:

“Okinawa? It’s also our next destination right?”

“Eh? What do you mean Hien-san?” Tsumugi asked, surprised.

“We are here to check on and receive reports from the Adventurers’ Posts situated in Japan before returning. One of them is in Okinawa - the last place we need to go to.” Isami explained.

“Eh? You guys are not going to stay here?!” Tamaki exclaimed in dismay.

“Even if we want to, we still have our own duty in Elder Tale. Soujirou is a Guild Master, so he can’t leave his guild in Akiba without anyone to manage. And the others are also of the upper levels so we have to return to look after the lower level Adventurers.” Nazuna explained.

“Then how about going to Okinawa with us? I think IDOLiSH7 would like to be with Riku for some more until you have to return.” Kai suggested, already seeing the distress in Tamaki and Iori’s eyes.

“I don’t think it would be a problem, as Krusty didn’t specify our return time anyway.” Soujirou said nonchalantly.

“It’s decided then.”

 


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trip to Okinawa part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry for disappearing for over a month everyone, this month had been hell on me, as I experience the famed "death March" for the first time. And it's not even about working in some company, but school work... Somehow our teachers get the idea of spreading 'active learning' to a bunch of students who until now had only have the traditional learning that is listening to lectures at school/university. And because of that, 'boom', we have to do a bunch of projects which mainly consist of making video (Voice acting video, folk-story video, advertisement video...) all of which had to be entirely in Japanese. It's a headache and a half, I tell you. And I have had many sleepless nights editing videos only to wake up early the next day for our morning class...living on caffeine is not fun.  
> Sorry for ranting a little bit there, but I bring you chapter 10. Also thank you for all of your suggestions guys, it really helped me out a lot in making the new plot for this.  
> P.S: On a side note my brain can't shut up and I have, like, 4 drafts of 4 new stories for Idolish7 in my computer, and I hope to publish them soon.   
> P.S.S: the next chapter may take a while, likely another month or two to complete because of my schedule being a bitch what with the end-of-term exam at the start of May...Really sorry for this, but I promise that I will not abandon this story.

“Sunlight! Blue sea! Beautiful beach! It’s Okinawa!” Mitsuki and Momo exclaimed excitedly.  
“The best thing is that we’re on vacation, which means no work for the rest of the week!” Yamato said in a rare moment of enthusiasm.  
“It’s rare for Yaotome-papa to agree with this, as taking a vacation means less work coming in, less opportunities and more risk of being ambushed by fans and anti-fans alike.” Yuki said.  
“Mah, we have been run ragged for Autumn Concert so the presidents think we all deserve the rest, and also” Okazaki smiled, turning his gaze towards the Adventurers “we have the most efficient body-guards tagging along.”  
“Yahoo!! It’s the sea!” Hien shouted gleefully.  
“Oi Hien don’t use any of your technique! This is NOT Sand Leaf! It doesn’t have any monster so put your weapons away! Hien!” Shouryuu yelled while chasing his hyperactive teammate.  
“Urgh…that idiot…” Isami pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation.  
“Ahaha, it’s nice to finally relax” Soujirou said in happiness.  
“But after this vacation we will go back to our Death March for the new dungeons, again.” Nazuna casually burst the Adventurers’ happy-bubbles in 3 seconds flat.  
“Argh!! Please don’t make us remember that!” Kawara yelled, while Hien and Shouryuu sat in their emo-corner to sulk, their earlier enthusiasm vanishing at the speed of light.  
“Mah mah, we are on the same boat as you guys anyway” Sougo said while sweat-dropping at their antics “So let’s just enjoy our vacation to the fullest”  
After the spectacle, they spread out on the beach (which was a small but remote one that Otoharu, Sousuke and Tsukino president had reserved for the idols for privacy) to enjoy themselves. Most went to either play in the water or play beach volleyball – which sparked another completion between Hajime and Shun – while the rest were either sleeping on the hammocks (i.e. Yamato), sunbathing or just sitting under the umbrellas. Riku and Tenn were of the group sitting under an umbrella enjoying the cool breeze and each other’s company. Even though Riku could finally walk normally several days after Autumn Concert, he was happily sitting and talking with Tenn, they have several years to catch up! The other occasionally looked at the twins’ direction in fondness, as they can clearly see the strong bond between the two.  
While the twins were talking happily, Gaku and Hien suddenly came to an unspoken agreement to the uneasiness of Ryuu and Shouryuu. The two males (Gaku and Hien) sneaked up to the twins and proceeded to dump a bucket of water each on their (Riku and Tenn) heads, startling the two.  
“Gah, what the-?!*cough cough*” Tenn exclaimed in surprise.  
“Uwah!! *cough cough cough*” Riku, taken by surprise could only spluttered weakly.  
“Ya.o.to.me.Ga.ku” Tenn growled at the smirking silver haired male.  
“What’s that, chibi? You need to loosen up” Gaku only smirked with Hien snickering beside him, the two not noticing the others who had started to inch away from the rapidly chilling air.  
“So we only need to loosen up, ne?” Riku said in a sickeningly sweet voice, and while he is smiling brightly everyone can feel the murder in the air, as Tenn also showed the same threatening smile as his twin.  
Hien and Gaku suddenly regret their decision very much, and the others who are not playing in the water had already sat down to watch the spectacle with popcorn bags that Shun procured out of nowhere. Tenn immediately pulled out a water gun from the bag, but was stopped by Riku who was smiling cheerfully. The pale hair idol looked at his twin in question, especially when the red haired male gave him a strange type of blue cylinder with a small ball at each end. Riku only winked at his brother and said mischeviously:  
“Watch” He swung the rod and a jet of water shot out of the tip, drowning Hien and Gaku in seconds “This thing don’t need mana to activate, there is a button in the middle so even normal people can use it. It’s not usefull as a weapon though”  
“Gaahhhh!!!! Colddddd!!!!” Hien yelled in surprise.  
“Hey, that’s unfair!” Gaku yelled, but was blasted by a jet of cold water for the second time, courtesty of Tenn who only smirked evilly.  
The ones not playing in the sea were sitting on the mats and eating popcorn while watching the slaughter of Hien and Gaku by the twins’ hands. Somehow, the ones playing in the sea also got pulled in and escalated into a full-scaled water fight. Everyone was wet from head to toe and shivering because of the chilly air in the afternoon. They were ushered back into the hotel by the worried managers and forced to take a hot bath before having dinner. The joint bath, while very spacious was crowded because there were 5 idol groups in there at the same time. There was another water fight between the younger members of I7, Six Gravi and Procella but it was quickly stopped by Kai, Haru and Mitsuki.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
After dinner, the idols played many games together, and overall be as rowdy as a group of teens and adults can be. Soon Riku was seen yawning tiredly, and Tenn, being such a brocon, noticed it and quickly ushered his twin to bed:  
“Riku, if you are tired then go to sleep, don’t try to be awake.”  
“*yawn* Un, then we’ll go to sleep first…good night everyone.” Riku rubbed his eyes tiredly, not noticing that Tenn had frozed where he stood.  
“ ‘We’?” Tenn asked, his voice becoming omnious but of course Riku didn’t notice it, being too sleepy to care.  
“Sou~ Let’s gooo~” Riku pulled on Souji’s shirt’s sleeve, speaking in a whiny tone that made Iori and Souji blushing.  
“hah, okay then, let’s go Riku” Souji can only smile fondly at his boyfriend, then took Riku’s hand and pulled the red head gently to their shared room.  
“That guy, where does he think he’s going-Gaku, let go of me!” Tenn’s face became dark as he tried to stop the two, keyword being tried because Gaku had took a hold of the pale haired man and refused to let go.  
“Just let those two be, brat. Nanase is not a kid anymore.” Gaku said  
“Mah, if you are worried that they would do the R-rated thing then don’t worry.” Nazuna smiled teasingly at some of the idols who was red in the face from their imagination “Souji and Riku only cuddle when they sleep with each other, really those two are cuddle monster alright.”  
“Tch” Tenn only clicked his tounge, while the others can only sweatdrop because of his over-protectiveness.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Next day, in Okinawa’s Adventurer Patrol Post…  
“Hey, don’t fall asleep, we have a job to do” the Samurai class Adventurer wacked his companion on the head.  
“Ouch, you don’t have to hit that hard ya know, there’s hardly anything anyway” Said companion, a Monk class Adventurer said while rubbing his aching head.  
“…Is that a gate opening in the forest?...” the Samurai class Adventurer said in a hestiant tone, watching a sensor beeping continuously.  
“Wait a minute WHAT?!” the Monk class Adventurer shouted in disbelieve, and started to run around in panic “We have to ring the arlarm!!”  
“You just jinxed us you idiot1 Raise the arlarm! I’ll contact Soujirou-sama and Riku-sama!”  
“Darn it! Why now of all time? And such a large gate…”


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trip to Okinawa part 2 - preparation for the fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: I am so so so sorry for disappearing for more than 2 months...I admit my inspiration is lacking. It's not that the ideas you guys gave me are not useful, I am just at a crossroad about this story's timeline and need some time to sort out the details for this one and 2...no 3 others...(darn it brain stop supplying me ideas!)  
> Also because we stared our summer break since the end of May I can have more time for fanfiction writing but it seems to go nowhere...I want to at least finish this story as this is my first one, and I plan to update another, which is basically a collection of every pieces of story my brain have created so far (which is no where near half-complete) and decide on continuing later. I learned this through some of my favorite author (it's mainly from sakurademonalchemist-san from fanfiction.net, their fics are awesome!)  
> Also thank you to every person who still continue to read this fic even with my crappy writing and erratic updating schedule. Enjoy reading and if you have any new ideas for this, don't hesitate to comment below.  
> P.S: I think I wrote this one extra long, and sorry in advance about the fighting scene, I'm crap at writing it and am still trying to fix it.

\----The next morning----

Tenn woke up to the sunlight peering out at him from the window, the clock at his bedside beeping slightly and showing the time – 8:30 a.m. As it’s a vacation for everyone, they had came to an anonymous agreement to sleep in, even the ever early riser like Mitsuki – as he don’t have to make breakfast for everyone. Walking into the hotel’s cafeteria, Tenn is not surprised to see most of the idols sitting around, as it’s already quite late to sleep in even by normal standard (except some people like Tamaki, Yamato and Yuki, who are not morning person). What was surprising was the atmosphere in the room, it was so tense you could probly cut it with a knife. The Adventurers, Riku included, were in heavy discussion, pooring over a map on the table with several props like in a mediveal movie. Tenn went to where the others were seated and asked the nearest person, who happened to be Procella’s Fuzuki Kai:

“Good morning Fuzuki-san. What is going on, if I may ask?”

“Ah, Kujou-san, good morning. It seemed they are in some kind of strategy meeting, but I don’t really know the details as they have been at it since 5 in the morning…” Kai said sheepishly and pointed to Iku, who was trying to make the sleepy Rui to eat his breakfast “Iku said that when he went for his usual morning jog, Soujirou-san seemed to have received an urgent call and had assembled their group to discuss, and they hadn’t stop since then”

“I wonder what happened that they seemed so stressed? Well Shouryuu-san and Isami-san did…” Sougo wondered worriedly.

“Well, you guys will find out…right about now” Shimotsuki Shun, Procella’s leader said plainly when the Adventurers stood up from their table and looked towards everyone else.

“Sorry, but can you guys go to the conference room now? And someone call the managers and presidents, we have an enmergency.” Soujirou said to the idols.

\-------------------------------------------------------

“What’s wrong?” Yaotome Sousuke said directly after everyone had assembled into the conference room the hotel provided, with the three presidents appearing on the TV’s conference call function.

“We have just received an urgent report from our Adventurer post in Okinawa, there is an abnomaly large gate appearing near here, thankfully not close to any other towns.” Soujirou explained.

“A gate?” Otoharu asked.

“Yes, a gate. I’m sure you all know about Elder Tale?” Nazuna asked, and when she received nods from everyone the were-fox continued “These gates are a side effect of us connecting with Earth, and the five Adventurer post – Okinawa included – are set up to prevent the monster that escaped through the gates from attacking normal human.”

“So the gate this time is larger than normal, means that there will be more monster?” Haru spoke up.

“Yes, the larger the gate the more monster that will come out, but there is another concern.” Soujirou confirmed.

“This time, the monsters that come out of the gate would not be the normal Goblins or minor monster from low level training fields. Our machine had detected that these monster come straight out of a newly formed dungeon.” Riku said, to the surprise of the idols and managers alike.

“Dungeon?! That means bigger monsters?” Tamaki said, his face going paler by seconds.

“Then where exactly is the gate? And are you gonna do something about it?” Sousuke demanded.

“The gate, according to our caculation will open fully in the forest to the west of this hotel, the distance is about 5 kilometers give or take. As this is a private establishment, we can at least be sure that no one else other than us and the hotel’s staff are heavily affected.” Nazuna pointed at a map of the area, circling a spot that is dangerously close to the hotel.

“And you can be assured that we will deal with the threat, but as the connected dungeon is a new one, we need some more time to investigate what kind of monster we are facing.” Riku explained “As I will go back to Elder Tale to investigate, the rest of us will stay here to inform the autorities and set up barriers. We will need you to stay inside the hotel, starting from the day after tomorrow for your safety, so today you are going to the town for supplies with some of the staff. And don’t go near the forest.”

“But Riku, it’s dangerous to go alone! At least take someone with you!” Tenn protested, his mind going to the scenarios where his twin would be in danger without any help.

“Tenn-nii, it’s okay. I’m used to this. And as we are pressed for time, me going alone is the best solution.” Riku reassured his worried twin.

“That’s right. All of us except Sou-sama are no match for Riku-san’s speed and strength, and Sou-sama have to stay here to inform the authorities and to evacuate the nearby civillians. Some of us will help with the evacuation while the others will be setting up the barriers.” Isami explained to the worried idols.

After the discussion, they were divided into groups to lighten the workload, with the hotel’s staff being informed of the situation. There was a moment of awe seeing Riku summon a Griffin to fly back to the gate, but things soon fall into a buzz of activity to prepare for the gate. Meanwhile, Riku had quickly flown back to the gate and arrive back in Akiba at night and had informed RTCA of the situation. Shiroe and Nyanta quickly summoned their Griffin, with Riku riding with Shiroe – as his own Griffin was exhausted after flying from Okinawa back to Mount Fuji. They arrived at the gate of the new dungeon and cautiously went in occasionally putting markers on the wall to map their way back. The first few level of the dungeon was full of low level monsters, but Riku used his Cloaking Skill to hide their presence and save time exploring. When Shiroe’s spell detected gate’s activity, the three had went to the middle room of the dungeon (according to the sensor). It was a throne room for the dungeon boss.

“So this is the throne room…” Shiroe whispered while doing his best to record everything.

“But to think there are this many monster-nya…” Nyanta commented worriedly “And the gate is being opened directly from here…”

“Orc, huh?....I knew that I can’t like them…” Riku said quitely in disgust while pulling off his eyepatch “Most of them are the grunts…on par with Sanhuagins…the 5 black ones are the generals… higher level than the rest, and of course Orc Lord…eventhough it’s not to the level of a last boss it’s level is quite high…”

“We should send some back up over Okinawa…to amass a large operation in raiding this dungeon in a day is impossible…” Shiroe mumbled.

“We still have the Landers and the rouge Adventurers to think about…Souji, Nazuna-nee, Isami-san, Hien-kun and Shouryuu-kun being in Okinawa is enough of a loss in man power…” Riku said, silently activating Cloaking again along with Mute Barrier to cancel out the sound they make when moving.

“Still, I’ll send the rest of our guild except Akatsuki over…Except for her doing recon mission everyone else are not really needed in our plan against the Landers…” Shiroe said bluntly.

They had successfully escaped the dungeon without arlerting the monsters, eventhough there were some close call. The trip back to Log Horizon’s headquarters in Akiba was short, and the three immediately round up the members and have them pack for the trip to Okinawa. The younger members were excited about the news, right up until they heard about the orcs.

“Wait a minute, are you saying we are gonna have to battle those orcs?!” Touya exclaimed.

“That’s insane…Maybe we could go for one or two orcs at the same time, as a party mind you, but a herd is a little…” Isuzu said worriedly.

“Maa don’t worry, you guys’ mission is to protect the hotel and the people inside it.” Shiroe placated the panicking kids.

“Besides, you have me as a marverlous tank protecting the fort” Naotsugu posed in a supposedly cool way, ignoring the muttered ‘that’s what we are worried about’ from Isuzu “And the deadly combo, Soujirou-chan and Riku-chan!”

“…are you forgetting about Shouryuu, Hien, Isami and Nazuna? And count yourself in the frontline too, you are the only Guardian class here…” Shiroe deadpanned.

“ehehe…”

“Please double check everything, pack only the necessity as the hotel staffs will prepare our foods, don’t forget the potions and equipments.” Riku said to the younger Adventurers, who did as he said and re-check their bags.

The small group, consist of Riku, Nyanta , Naotsugu, Tetra, Touya, Minori, Isuzu and Rudy quickly got on the Griffins and fly back to Okinawa. As the Griffin’s speed were nothing to scoff at, they arrived at Okinawa in the late afternoon of the same day. Most of the idols and staffs’ groups were in town for supplies, and the other Adventurers were spread out to put up a barrier over the hotel. Iku, Rui and Arata were there to greet them, which made Tetra extra hyper because ‘they are my fellow idols’ and ‘we’re gonna be soooo great’, among other things the pink haired Cleric gushed out. The others began to come back in small groups while the Adventurers were in the conference room for strategy meeting, and when dinner time came chaos ensued.

“Ricchannnnnn!!!!!” Soujirou, in a rare moment of extreme childishness, cling to the red haired Assassin as soon as they met in the dining room and whined “I can’t take it anymoreeeee~ No more meetings with spineless politicians~! I thought I was going to commit murder right there!”

“Isami? What happened?” Riku asked, while gently patting his whining boyfriend’s head in comfort.

“Ah, long story short the Mayor of Okinawa is a coward of the highest caliber, all bark ad no bite. The entire time of the meeting he’s either demanding we do as he say or stuttering so badly we can’t make out what the heck he was saying. Sou-sama looked like he was gonna impale the imbecile in the ass.” Isami said bluntly, ignoring Shouryuu’s shout of ‘Language, Isami! There are children here!’

“Is that so…” Riku turned to his boyfriend, the two had sat down in the pinic-style chair while the rest trickled in “There there, how about later we have a little spar?”

“Absolutely! Ricchan is the best!” Soujirou cheered like a kid in a candy store, the two lovebirds oblivious to the increasingly murderous aura a certain pale haired idol was releasing.

“Tenn..ca-calm down..” Ryuu tried in vain to placate his younger groupmate.

“You had agreed to let those two continue their relationship did you not? Then why are you acting brattier than usual?” Gaku as always riled Tenn up with his words alone.

“Kuh…I know, I know…but it’s frustrating…and annoying to see that guy hugging Riku…” Tenn gritted out.

“You brocon…” Gaku grumbled in exparation

The common room is rowdy as usual, even with the threat of the opening gate looming over them – an ineviable occurrence with 5 male idol groups and teenage Adventurers. Minori and Rudy demonstrated some of their more harmless spells to the excited idols (Nagi especially), while Isuzu got into an intense discussion with Yuki and Sougo about making songs and instruments. Touya and Hien immersed themselves in an enthusiastic story telling session with exagarated gestures and the occasional correction from Kawara and Shouryuu.

BOOM!

A sudden sound of an explosion made half of the occupants jumped in surprise, while the other half snapped out of their nap/discussion/etc… Nazuna and Isami exchanged helpless glance, which didn’t escape the more observant ones. Naotsugu only looked at the grinning Nazuna and the I-am-so-done-with-my-life expression on Isami’s face before he sighed and proceed to go outside, ignoring the curious look from practically everyone and the grinning Tetra still perching on his shoulder like a demented koala. The male idols only snapped out of their trance when Naotsugu equipped his armor and tell them to not step out of the door.

“What is happening?” Tamaki asked in curiosity, while Sougo is pulling said boy back in panic “Tamaki-kun, please go back it’s dangerous!”

“It’s just Ricchan and Souji, they are sparring to relieve Souji’s stress. Don’t worry too much.” Nazuna said nonchalantly, ignoring the incredulous look from the idols when some more explosion rocked the ground.

Souji was wearing his battle armor, which resembled the old style samurai armor in dark red color, along with his two trusty Katana. Riku on the other hand had on very few armor except his arm guard and knee-high metal boots, his white scarf fluttering with his movement and eyepatch off. On an unseen signal, the two Adventurers clashed their weapons with sparks flying and blurred movements, engaging in a deadly dance of swords and knives. Riku suddenly jumped back several leap and threw some kunais, which multiplied into hundreds. Soujirou quickly used his two sword to deflect the barrage of deadly knives, some of it detonated when it was hit or when it touched the ground. After the smoke from the explosion cleared, only Soujirou can be seen, while there was no hide nor hair of the red haired boy.

“Where is Rikkun?” Tamaki looked around curiously.

“He is hiding to ambush Sou-sama. Normally you can’t really hide with a high level Adventurer like Sou-sama, but Riku-san is one of the few people on par with him, so it’s not a surprise.” Kawara said.

“He is an Assassin, their specialty is hiding and ambushing and of course,” Nazuna said, just as Riku marterialized out of nowhere and started to attack Soujirou relentlessly “assassination.”

“Awesome~” Tamaki, Koi, Kakeru and Arata exclaimed in awe with starry eyes as the fight went on, both of the Adventurers too absorbed into their fight to notice the audiences.

“Oiii, you two!!!! Can you stop?! It’s late, and the gate is gona open early the more mana you use!” Naotsugu shouted, being the only one who can get close to the fight without being accidentally skewered.

There were an explosion, and then when the smokes cleared they can see Riku and Soujirou locked in a stalemate, Riku’s Kodachi near Soujirou’s neck while one of the samurai’s katana was on the red head’s shoulder. Riku and Soujirou smiled at each other and relaxed, putting their weapons away, with the kunais that Riku had thrown earlier automatically disappearing back into his inventory.

“Well, we are done here” Soujirou said, having returned into his casual clothes, while Riku spoke up “And for the record, we did take measures to surround the area with a barrier before-hand, so no mana got leaked out.”

“You two better go to sleep early, for the battle tomorrow we need our best fighter in their top condition.” Nazuna said seriously to the two adventurers, then sighed “Or Shiroe will bite my head off…”

“Yes Mom” the two chorused, looking perfectly innocent if not for the craters behind them.

“Riku, are you okay?! Hurt anywhere?!” Tenn finally snapped out of his shocked state and dashed to Riku’s place, fretting at the light scratches here and there on the red –head.

“I’m fine Tenn-nii, these are just scratches, nothing a minor healing spell can’t fix.” Riku said reasurely to his fretting twins, and the two once again went into their own world.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Soujirou deadpanned, while the idols can only sweatdropped at the familiar sight

_‘Somehow that became a normal occurance…’_

Then Anesagi and the managers came to herd the idols to bed like punishing naughty children, the insuing argument on the way to their room was inevitable. Riku and the adventurers can only chuckled before they themselves were urged to bed by Nazuna, surprisingly. When explained about Shiroe’s request (read: threat), they just sighed fondly at the mother-hen behaviour of their Guild Master. Riku looked up at the full-moon outside uneasily

_‘Somehow I have a bad feeling about tomorrow…Hien, Shouryuu and Nazuna are also restless, even if they tried to hide it. It’s gonna be okay, get a grip of yourself Nanase Riku. We have to success tomorrow…’_ Riku turned his sight to his twin, who is arguing with Yaotome Gaku _‘Don’t worry Tenn-nii…I will not let you get hurt ever again, this time…let me be the one to protect you…’_

The red head failed to notice the worried gaze from Soujirou, who is looking at his boyfriend’s expression worriedly. The samurai then notice a small wound on Riku’s right hand, most likel from their earlier spar.

_‘But…ever since we came into Elder Tale our body became like a game’s program and any wound we receive only have some red pixels coming out…So why is Riku’s wound bleeding?...’_


End file.
